So I Jumped

It was the second semester of my freshman year. I just started pledging a sorority. And the funny thing, it was the Christian sorority. A few of my friends and I had really connected and become close friends with some of the older girls and those older girls were so outgoing, adventuresome, and downright cool. We wanted to hang out with the cool kids. We were the little freshman and we wanted to do whatever they were doing.

It all started one night during an innocent game of cops and robbers. Oh and I must state for the record, our game of cops and robbers had the boundaries of Baylor Landing apartments (where the new Dutton parking garage is now) to Ghetto HEB (12th and Speight). Those of you who are familiar with Baylor’s campus know that this is a rather large territory for a game. The robbers would leave Baylor Landing first and get a 5 minute head start and would have to race across campus to Ghetto HEB without getting caught by the cops who were 5 minutes behind. It was a great game and so much fun. Once everyone got to Ghetto HEB we would wait for everyone to get there and then head back switching teams. This cycle would go on for a couple hours.

One night, after a few rounds of cops and robbers we were back at one of the older girl’s apartment at Baylor Landing and we were deciding what to do next when one of the older girls had the brilliant idea of jumping off the Suspension Bridge. We were already wearing all black, had our running shoes on and it was almost midnight so why not. It was the perfect situation to do it of course!

So off we went to downtown Waco. The whole way there we were discussing our game plan. We were going to park the car, a couple people were going to keep watch and the rest of us were jumping..at the same time. Oh and the most important part. If for some reason the cops showed up or someone else important then our code word for "danger" was "JOHNNY!" Don't ask me why Johnny, it just worked. As we were making our way to the bridge the discussion was nothing more than, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe we're going to do this." We got to the area on the bridge that we had decided on to jump from. Climbed over the rail and we were standing on the side of the bridge, facing the river, with our arms stretched to the sides still holding on.

"On the count of 3 we will all jump!"

"1...2...3...JUMP!"

Everyone jumped but 2 of us! I was still freaking out and could not bring myself to let go. My friend who also had not jumped yet went quickly after everyone else so now it's just me, still hanging on, trying to convenience myself that this is a great idea and I will later regret it if I don't do it.

So I jumped. Mid air I heard "JOHNNY JOHNNY JOHNNY JOHNNY...." Perfect timing. I hit the water and went down for a long time and it felt even longer trying to swim back to the top. Once I finally came out of the water I took the biggest breath of my life and began swimming faster than I've ever swam before.

When I got to shore the Johnny Call had been a false alarm.

Soaking wet, I walked back down the hall to my dorm room in North Russell and found a few friends waiting on me.

They had 2 questions. Why all black and why all wet?