Freshman year, midterm season has always been a stressful and frustrating season for highschool students. The chaotic order of completing papers and preparing for final exams tightens shoulders and fogs one’s mind with fatigue due to lack of sleep. It’s the final stretch before crossing the finish line. The last battle before returning home for Christmas break, where students can momentarily forget responsibilities and school. A heaven of sorts.
Finally finishing my last paper for my humanities religious course relieved and liberated me. Memorizing all the words for my latin class and practicing problems for my pre-calc class also provided me with a sense of security and freedom. It was the “calm before the storm.” So to relax, I spent my time doing what I usually did to temporarily escape reality as a 16 year old: play games.
However, that night, an unexpected turn of events occurred as I heard a loud thunk on my window from outside. An unusual anomaly, as it was already past our 10 pm curfew and it was freezing outside, for my school was located in the frigid, northern regions of Massachusetts. I remembered that snow has already reached past 9 inches, so I opened my window to investigate the noise. And to my pleasant surprise, I saw one of my closest friends outside, Alex, fully suited with warm clothes and sled next to his feet, looking up at me with arms wide open as if implying “Are we going or what?” Immediately, I cracked a smile as I understood the intent and plan.
Just the day before, we were walking up Chapel Hill. A church often repurposed as our school’s auditorium for weekly Friday meetings. Along the hike up, we saw a cliff formed from the elevated packed snow and jokingly mentioned how it would be pretty gnarly to sled it down. To most, the snowy cliff would look like a death sentence, as the drop was easily a story tall and the incline elevation was close to 60 degrees. But for boys like us during the bland and monotonous existence in boarding school during midterm season, opportunities like those appeared more like adventures, just waiting to be taken advantage of.
I quickly darted back into my room to change into warmer attire. Thick jeans, double socks, sneakers, jacket, and gloves. Because we were freshmen in a boarding school environment, we had to follow curfew rules where students must be in their dorms by 9 pm and lights out by 10. A stupid rule for energetic boys like us and one often never taken seriously. Because I also lived on the second floor, I was challenged by getting past my dorm parents who lived on the first floor. However, I was blessed with having a fire escape just outside of my window, which was perfect for sneaking out.
When I finally got out of my claustrophobic room, I climbed down the fire escape and reunited with Alex as well as the fresh, crispy winter air outside. Our surroundings were well night as the snow reflected the silver moonlight and stars were twinkling above like a space auditorium. Lamps lighting up around the white, snowy campus created a Narnia aesthetic and we were alone outside. I also laughed when I realized he “temporarily borrowed” his own dorm parent’s childrens’ sled for our mission that night.
When we got up to Chapel Hill, we found already caved-in sled routes down the hill used by previous students during the day. Like a water slide, we repeatedly enjoyed the momentary bliss as the short-lived highs sled rides were fun, yet not thrilling. Once satisfied and bored from the limited routes, we ventured off to another side of the hill into unexplored territory of fresh, untouched snow above the cliff. Peering down created a similar sensation of looking down a high story building.
We approached the challenge like scientists. Logically and calculatedly. Due to Alex weighing less, he sat in front of the sled while I sat in the back to shift the average weight toward the rear end. The trajectory we chose went right toward the center section of the cliff, so the deepest part of the snow directly afterward can provide us a soft landing. We felt mentally ready and physically prepared as we sat down, prepared for the roller coaster ride.
Imagining a scenario is often different from truly experiencing it. Mentally, I imagined that we would crash, but the snow would be deep enough so no one would get injured. This wasn’t the case. Instead, we pushed off from the start and caught speed fast. Before, we took turns riding the sled alone. However, for all physicists out there, one knows that force is mass times acceleration. So my weight and Alex’s caused the sled to pick up speed at an alarming rate, and the cliff came toward us fast. Seconds later, we got airtime. And my god, the sky was fucking beautiful.
I remember when we began flying off that cliff, the silence was deafening. Other than Alex’s voice saying “Oh shit” repeatedly, the night was silent. Above me was the galaxy, with stars scattered as far as the eye can see. The moon overhead was shining more like a soft, glowing sun. I felt celestial. However that moment was short lived as Alex and I crashed face first into the snow. Or at least Alex did.
Due to Alex being in the front, he ate dirt (*or snow) upon the crash. And since I was behind Alex, my face slammed into the back of his head. After that was as what one could imagine. Two idiots falling off the sled upon impact and rolling down the snowy hill. Exhilaratingly fantastic. At the bottom of the hill, we both shouted with excitement and checked on each other to see if either one of us was still alive. Heart pumping 100 miles per hour from the adrenaline. However, something was different. Everything was blurry.
I realized I lost my glasses from the cliff jump. I did find it a few days later in the snow, but taking finals without glasses really does make you look like an idiot when your face has to be incredibly close to the paper. Back to the moment though, the moment of silence when we had airtime from the cliff is something I will never forget. The moment under the stars was magical to me. A core memory as one would call it. The sense of freedom and adrenaline makes me want to live with a new sense of appreciation and gratitude. To never be stagnant and satisfied. To seek adventure and to be bold.
What was truly memorable for me in the end was that when my face slammed into Alex’s head, I got the gnarliest scar on my lip. It’s my favorite scar, because it consistently reopens when my mouth becomes dry and I smile. And everytime the scar stings painfully when reopened, I get reminded of the special moment when I was flying under the stars, free as a bird.
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