Jumper

Would you like to know one of the best retorts ever, especially if someone says you're a wimp or something? I can tell you.

The context it would be used in follows:
Annoying Person: "Haha, I'm so tough, I'm not afraid of anything!"
Me: "bet you've never jumped off a 50 foot cliff."
Annoying Person: *shocked silence* "have you?"
Me: "yup."

Our troop went to West Virginia for a white-water rafting trip two summers ago, and one of the things they let you do while on the river was leap off a cliff into the water. The first day, it was a 25 foot jump, but during the second day we went all or nothing. I, being stupid, did it. It was actually pretty cool, but terrifying.

I'm mentioning this because I remembered it last night, and just thinking of it gives me chills all over. No one was injured, because it was proven safe, but there's always the question of whether you'll be the first. I did a cannon-ball both times (bad idea). The 25 foot ripped off one of my shoes just from the impact, and i could barely sit down after the 50. If I had landed on my side, I would have blown out an ear drum.

I didn't do it without making sure it was safe, though. I asked the guide, "How deep is it?" thinking 15-20 feet. It was just a river, after all. "40 feet where you land, near the edge," he replied with complete calm. If it wasn't for the life jackets, I wouldn't have been able to go any further.

After you actually step off the ledge, there's the usual feeling you get when jumping, for a brief moment. Then your stomach realizes you should have landed already, and does a trapeze as a response to the fact you haven't. The guy filming everyone for the DVD of our trip didn't help, either. "OK, I'll count to three so you can jump. One, two, FOUR!" one girl couldn't even do it after he did that.

Now that I've experienced the feeling of free fall for about 2 seconds, 50 feet, I'm thinking it's time to go skydiving.