Snapshot Moment By: Jessica Quiroz

All I could hear as I was climbing up a rock was my heart pounding a thousand beats a minute. It felt as though my heart was going to burst out of my heart because I was so petrified that I was going to fall off the rock and into the river before my mother could even take the picture. I didn’t even notice the small children fishing in the river beneath me; I didn’t notice the small breeze blowing that was making the trees around me sway. All I could pay attention to was my heart beating in my ears and trying to remember how to breathe, so I wouldn’t pass out and be the girl on the news who passed out while climbing an average size rock.
This all started a couple minutes before when my dad suggested we climb up the rock and take a picture before we left Provo Canyon to go back home. I played a long on his little game thinking he was joking because he knows very well that I’m afraid of heights. So I said sure, we should climb that rock that’s beside the river and take a picture so we can remember this day. So my dad took the camera and gave it to my mom and told her to take the picture and he started walking towards the rock. At that moment I realized he was very serious about climbing the rock and taking a picture.
Even though I know very well I’m afraid of heights I wanted to climb the rock and take a picture because I wanted to do something that was outside my comfort zone.
I wanted to try something I knew I was never going to do again, something I could look back one day and say WOW! I can’t believe I did that. I’m the kind of person who never does anything crazy and all my friends and family know that. I guess the real reason why I decided to climb the rock was so I could prove to everybody that I could do something out of my comfort zone. And to prove to myself that even though you try something new or you’re afraid to overcome your fear in the end it’s worth it because you feel proud for doing it and everything worked out in the end.
After my mom took the picture of me and my dad on the rock I didn’t want to get off anymore. Not because I wasn’t scared because I was but I was afraid I was going to fall off while trying to walk back down because there was a lot of small rocks which made it very slippery. My dad convinced me that I wasn’t going to fall and that I could not stay up there all day so I finally came down. I was so glad to be back on the ground, I felt like I could finally breathe again! A few minutes later after I got on the ground I could not believe I had overcome my fear, I was so proud of myself for doing it. Since I knew I was safe I realized that the view was actually very beautiful and calming, I just wish I would have admired it more when I was up there instead of worrying about falling.