By Evelyn Yang

Bright sunshine glowed at the top of the sky above the meadow filled with white and yellow flowers; blue and orange butterflies danced across them. Vivid green leaves dangled from the sides as I skipped along the narrow dirt path in the Punta Cana Scape Park near our resort, Memories Splash, with my friends Mira and Angie. We turned and stepped onto a damp wooden deck. 

It was beautiful, like a land for fairies. It was formed by one stone wall that wrapped around half of the pool and stretched over as a roof. The other half wasn’t blocked and was left open as a cave entrance. The pool on the other hand was a brilliant bright blue filled with red and orange corals. The bottom of the pool was formed by a collection of rocks. Some covered in seaweed others speckled with moss. A few shells lay beneath the still blue waters. 

My friends walked down the huge wooden steps as I followed behind them quietly. The stairs, so big and uneven, looked like it could swallow me inside its cracks. “You're so quiet today Evelyn.”It was the horror of the stairs that kept me so quiet, but I just replied her with a stug. We kept walking forward, deeper below the ground, and closer to the lake. We sat down on the small platform the stairs led us to, the three of us sitting side by side at the edge of the cramped deck. I slowly dipped my feet into the still waters that held mysteries. A shiver of coldness ran through my body as if a poisonous snake slithered quietly up my spine preparing for a snack of my shoulder. As if the fear wasn’t enough, “Let’s go onto the diving station!” Mira offered. 

    I lifted my head to see a tall and narrow diving board above me. I thought I could feel it glaring down at me, speaking to me with its dreadful voice, “Another little girl who's afraid.”I clenched my jaw together and before I could give it a second thought, the words came spilling out of my mouth like rain pouring out of a cloud. “Sure!” I said, sounding excited. 

We headed up the huge wooden stairs with the uneven cracks again, this time I didn’t feel the same terror from before, how could I have time to think about that? I was about to jump off a monstrous diving board that glares at me even without eyes. I knew I shouldn’t have agreed to this, but even so it was too late to turn back now, I was already standing at the top of a 9 foot tall diving board. Not only that, but Mira was already on the edge of the board ready for a dive. She swung her arms up and spiraled into the air. And in a blink of an eye she drilled into the water followed by a loud “SPLASH!” sound, and before I knew, it was my turn. 

Slowly, I set one foot onto the damp and narrow board. It suddenly seemed so long. I would never be able to jump off and touch the water that held my fears, nor could I run back and face the disappointment of my friends. But what could I do now? I carefully placed my other foot onto the monstrous board, “SPLASH!”. I had no idea what happened, I could assume I took off like a cheetah and dove into the water like a dolphin, but more reasonably I probably went one step at a time carefully setting my feet on the board until I reached the end. 

I felt like I was swallowed by the ocean into the cold blue waters. I saw the corals, shells, and rocks that lay beneath calm, still waters. I pushed up like a jellyfish and swam up to the dock.  

I peered over the fence and saw the bright sunshine glow at the top of the sky above the meadow filled with white and yellow flowers; blue and orange butterflies danced across them. The vivid green dangled on the fence peacefully staring at me as if they were talking to me, “You can try and fail but don’t fail to try.”