Summer is about so many things for kids.  It’s about time to just be.  To read.  To run and play and be silly.  But, summer is also about taking chances- big chances.   For my guy, this happened on the famous Martha’s Vineyard Jumping Bridge.  After driving past it twenty times, it was finally time for a try.

Let’s first say that my boy is totally afraid of heights.  I’m not kidding.  Deathly afraid.  The first time he saw this bridge he wouldn’t even look over the edge!  As a parent, my first inclination is to say, “just do it.”

(Side note: I made him once go down a double black diamond ski run and I almost killed myself trying to save him after he crashed.  Let’s not mention that!)

For him to stand up and stare down into the rushing water below is huge.  I’m not kidding.  He stood for so long that I was sure he wasn’t going to jump.  I would have actually bet a hundred dollars that he wasn’t going to jump and then….

He did! He actually jumped off the bridge.  All the people on the bridge starting screaming and clapping.  He hit the water clean and came up kind of stunned that he did it with a smile the size of Mt. Washington.

Now, you can’t learn that in school.  That’s what summer is all about, don’t you think?