On the second day at the island school, we woke up bright and early at 6:30 to do yoga. A relaxing morning while also working our minds and our bodies in front of a beautiful sunrise made me feel relaxed and refreshed. We tackled different stretches and strength poses which helped me wake up and feel awake and energized. After yoga we headed over to breakfast and had some very delicious cinnamon buns.
Our second activity of the day was going to High Rock, a cherished place by the island school, getting to learn the history of it and get the opportunity to jump off it. Precious ’28 describes how she “then got ready to face my fear of both heights and deep ocean water by jumping off of a high rock deck and into 15 ft of ocean water. I watched one of the staff members, Em, jump in and come up to the surface of the water looking calm and happy. I watched more and more people jumping in and looking joyful but relieved at the same time. It was then my turn, and I was scared because I felt my fears coming back to me again. Others were talking about the stomach drop feeling they get when jumping off. It made me freak out even more as I started taking a number of deep breaths. I got my friends who already jumped to give me words of affirmation as I felt my fears drifting away slowly. They counted down for me and it took almost 10 tries before I could finally gather up the energy to jump off. 3…..2….1…splash. I felt as if I was in the air for 10 full seconds. My stomach dropped all the way to my feet at the last thing I felt was my body hitting the surface. I slowly rose up to the top and realized I did what I was most afraid of. It felt really nice to do something I wouldn’t normally do while having my friends cheer me on in the process. After we snorkeled and conquered my fear I jumped two more times, dropping 39 ft into the ocean. I couldn’t have jumped without the help of my friends and the encouragement of staff and Mr. Gieske (Happy birthday) and Ms. R-L.”
Charlotte ’28 describes what she saw “while snorkeling below High Rock we got to see many of the different kinds of fish we learned of the night before. It was amazing to see so many different great kinds of fish up close. After High rock we headed back to the school for lunch and after went to do a beach clean up. We first learned about what type of trash typically ends up in the ocean and how people are trying to remove it. After we got to picking up trash in three groups, each group picked its most interesting piece of trash, and created a little skit with it. “
Precious ’28 explains “Alayna ’28, Crosby ’28, and Jaylen ’27 were all in a group with me. We found interesting things like alcohol bottles, a rock with a rope tied to it, and pieces of a wrecked boat. We then made up an amazing story of Gerald Johnson who was a guy killed by his cousins after a party because of his inheritance – with the rock we found. Our amazing acting and narration got us a 8.6 which won the whole skit competition.”
