When I heard the plans I was anxious and ecstatic. My boyfriend texted me that night and told me his Russian friend and I were going with him to explore unknown waterfalls. I have done this before but on a small scale. I loved being adventurous and my boyfriend has such a passion for this and the excitement in his eyes made me want to go with them even more. I  especially adore hearing his tone of voice change when he talks about something he’s passionate about. As always we are never organized, we are always spontaneous with our plans and we had no real set time or destination until we were all in the car together. We decided to go to Carpenter Falls but not many people know that there are even more falls along this untamed area on the opposite side of the trail. We didn't know what to expect when we arrived, but we were there. I was terrified but I had a feeling the day would be worth it.

We finally picked a path we wanted to take. It was still chilly out it was only about 9:00am and it was the kind of cold that makes you feel energized, which I greatly needed because I woke up at 7:30am.The path was extremely slippery and ran right along the stream. I looked around with each rest we took and we got to this point on the trail where there was this tall body of rock along the wall of the thick tree line and along it the sun was shining a golden light upon it. We stopped to take in the beauty. Although, the water running along the path was like ice its fragrance was so comforting. As we continued I was getting nervous we wouldn’t find these secret waterfalls known as Angel Falls. Each time we heard water rushing we knew we were about to approach a waterfall whether it was Angel Falls or just a smaller one leading up to the biggest waterfall which made our bodies shake with excitement. In order to get to the bottom of each fall we had to climb down these drop offs that had previously been gone down by fellow adventurers and this was obvious to us because there was rope tied off to each tree at the top of each drop off to help you make it down and back up easier. I wasn’t too panicky when it came to the first one because it wasn’t enormous. Each waterfall got bigger as we continued, the very last one we could get to was five or six times the size of the first waterfall and indeed it was Angel Falls. At this point I was exhausted, sweaty, muddy and each time it came to climbing down these ropes I sat on my butt and contemplated if I really wanted to do this. But the last drop was different it had two sides that were slick and about thirty feet high. I sat at the top for about ten minutes as my boyfriend tried to encourage me and told me I'd be fine. These ten minutes I kept telling him I was going to die and he continued to reassure me that I would be fine. I finally made it down after sitting a top of this last drop off. I think the real reason I finally came down was more because that I was slowly slipping to the edge of the drop off. As I reached my last step until the bottom of the drop I felt so relieved to be back flat on my feet. I looked at my boyfriend with endearment because I now got to see the view that he and his friend have been seeing the past now fifteen minutes as I was procrastinating. I looked out upon the last waterfall and I couldn’t comprehend the sight; it was so beautiful now knowing that all the pain and strength I used to make it thus far paid off.

My advice to anyone is to take risks and take advantage of every opportunity for adventure you get because in the end it’s all worth it. I felt so empowered and strong knowing I just accomplished what most sane people wouldn’t even think of doing. Most people seek happiness and fun, in things involving money when real happiness can be found for free.