Throughout my life, I have never broken a bone. In fifteen years, not once has a bone in my body been snapped. However, I have suffered numerous injuries. In fact, it seems as though every year I manage to sprain my ankle. Previously, this would happen from playing basketball, when I would land improperly or slip. But in freshman year, I twisted my ankle by following one of my most illogical ideas ever.

I remember the moment vividly. I was over at a classmate’s house to film a video for our World Geography project. We had just finished after about two hours of working, and we were trying to brainstorm new ways to add more content to our video. Our decision? Simply fill in awkward scenes with short, comedic interludes.

Now, before I get to the injury, let me preface by saying that anytime I go to a house with at least two stories, I always envision jumping off the balcony and on to a couch below. Does this make me sound insane? Possibly, but I never followed up on this wish before. Keyword being before. I would have never guessed I would finally fulfill this bucket list goal when working on a class project.

As soon as my group mates suggested adding in comedic scenes, I immediately said, “Hey! Let me jump off your balcony. I swear it will be funny.” This was followed by three reactions. The group leader, Arianna, and my friend Parker said, “Sure, why not?” The person whose house we were at, Shravya, instantly objected. Clearly Shravya had the smartest train of thought. However, it was overruled by a vote of three to one.

As I climbed over the railing, all three of them spread out to different sides of the room, ready to take a video of my epic jump Clinging to the rail, I took a deep breath, unwisely closed my eyes, and leaped off of the balcony. For a brief moment, I thought to myself, “Hey, this isn’t so bad. It’ll probably be fine.” Well, it was not fine. It was very not fine.

I crashed into the sofa below. Somehow, I landed on my feet rather than my back. This meant that my weight all went to two points. To make matters worse, my left foot landed before the right, directing all of the force to a single point. As you would expect, I tumbled onto the ground with an exploding pain in my left ankle. My group mates laughed until they realized I was not getting up. Laughter turned to concerned questions, and I resorted to calling my mother to come pick me up.

Fortunately, the ankle was only sprained for about two weeks. With that being said, even though it sounds like it shouldn’t need to be said, do not ever jump off a balcony. You think you will have the presence of mind to land on your back safely, but it’s not that simple. I took a leap of faith that day, but the problem was I had no faith and the leap was more of a foolishly inspired fall.