The salty ocean breeze whistled through the screen on the window. I lay in bed asleep, listening to the ocean waves outside. A huge gust of wind tore through the screen, and forced my curtain to fly up into the ceiling fan, waking me up. I sat up and listened to the constant thudding of the curtain against the twirling fan., I put my feet on the cold wet ground near the window, and pulled the curtain to the side, so it would not fly up again. I looked outside, and it was brighter and sunnier than it had been that night, which was not a surprise. There was no way I was going to get back to bed with the humid air wrapping its arms around me. I walked down the hall not saying a word, the only sounds were the whistling wind, and the quiet pitter patter of my bare feet on the floor tiles. I grabbed a piece of coconut bread and the last of the fruit juice, as I sat outside looking at the glow of the British Virgin Islands. Today was the day.

We loaded the equipment onto the boat, and set out to Bitter End with the wind punching our faces. Arriving at the dock, I took the harnesses, and a board and started walking to the local side of the island. It was almost ten and we met up with Ross, with his blonde surfer hair, and his Ireland accent telling me exactly what to do. I organized the lines to the 12 meter kite out on the launching beach, and my family and I blew up the wings.

“What about the nine meter?” I asked him. “Oh we’re not using the nine meter today.” Right when he said that, I started to worry. I had never used a kite bigger than the nine meter, and the wind was blowing at 17 knots, maybe more. I put on my harness and tightened the straps, and got on the surf shops booties that were four sizes too big for me. I walked out in the turquoise water, over to the dingy my family was waiting for me in. We all watched as Ross did flips and twists up in the air, with the kite making him skim perfectly on the water, and into the dingy. We set out on the water just below the reef. Once we made it upwind as far as we could go, it was Ty who was going to go first. I watched as he traveled across the water, then fell again. I noticed that his power stroke wasn’t very big, and he still got up, that means my power stroke would have to be really small otherwise I would go way too fast.

Eventually, It was my turn. The yellow 12 meter kite was billowing in the wind as if it was mocking me. Ross sat with me and asked if I was ready. I nodded my head, and he pulled the kite down and hooked it on my harness. I adjusted it and put the chicken bone through, so I would stay connected to the kite. He said, “okay when you’re ready pull on the left side.” I took a breath then pulled ever so slightly, and soon I was off and moving. I needed to turn, but I didn’t really know how yet. By this time, I was moving way too fast, and I was starting to freak out. I’m going to crash into the beach, I thought. I tilted the kite to 12 o'clock, and it slowed me down. Soon I started to go the other way and I was doing pretty well, but the kite started going wild, and my first instinct was to crash it onto the water. So I did exactly that. It landed with a loud thud that would travel all the way across the bay.

The dingy drove over to me, and Ross started telling me what I could do to make myself better, but at this moment my head was turned around, not paying attention to the kite. A huge gust of wind came out of nowhere and lifted the kite up to 12. I noticed immediately, and pulled on the right side to make the kite crash again, but that only made me start moving to the right. I finally got it under control again, and sunk into the water with the kite above me. Just then, about six tourists in a dinghy drove by through the channel and asked Ross for directions he told them by yelling  across the water to them. I was in the smack in the middle of this, so there was no way that I could ignore what was happening between them. Then, the kite decided to take me for a ride. It caught an unexpected whisk of wind and carried me into the air. The board dropped off my feet as I was lifted up into the sky. I held onto the bar, like it would save me, but that didn’t seem to help. At four stories above the water, I was calm, I didn’t think about how I could fall four stories if I did the wrong thing.

I glanced down at Ross and my family and saw Ross doing some sort of weird dance with his arms, like a tap dancer with a cane. I had no idea he was telling me what I need to do. Then, I looked over at the tourists, who had turned their boat around to watch me. From what it looked like their mouths were wide open.

I had never really noticed how beautiful the islands were and how silent and peaceful nature was. I could hear the distant sound of the waves crashing over a beach, and the smell of the ocean air, just like I was sleeping. But, I wasn’t sleeping, I was wide awake, and it was like the perfect dream. It was my own special place, like nothing I had ever experienced before. Eventually, I floated back down to the water like Mary Poppins, and thought, wait did that really just happen?

Soon, I heard the faint buzzing of the dinghy motor, and turned around to see looks of bewilderment, and relief. Ross said, “Are you okay? That was awesome!” I nodded my head and chuckled a little as he took the kite from me, while I climbed in the boat.

A little while later after my dad and mom had their turn, he said to me, “The wind is really blowing hard, do you want to try piggyback?” “Yeah I guess.” I said. I put my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist. We took off full speed ahead, and then came a jump. I closed my eyes, and held on for dear life to my own arms, as we went high into the air, and back down again with no mistakes made. The next one was more complicated with twists and turns in midair. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” I asked “Yup.” He replied in his irish accent. After a little while I got used to it, trusted him more, and was actually enjoying every jump. It had to soon come to an end, and the smile on my face went cheek to cheek. After we were done, he let my dad drive the boat, while he landed the kite perfectly on the beach.

I hung up my harness inside the shed, as a storm came out of nowhere, with strong wind and rain. My family ran inside the surf shed, as the rain poured down on us acting like the pitter patter of my feet on the floor that morning.