During my preteen, I got injured frequently. When I was two, I cracked my head open; at four years old, I fell off a low branch of a tree while climbing it, and sprained my ankle; four years later, I broke my fall on a balance beam when I lost control on a trampoline and broke my wrist. Because my parents wanted my young self in a safer environment to do the activities that I loved, my mom got me involved in gymnastics. I stuck with it for only a couple of years but developed fundamental skills that I still use today.

In High School, my friends and I loved climbing, skateboarding, mountain biking, extreme hiking, and cliff jumping: cliff jumping was the one that really stuck because my gymnastics fundamentals allowed me to advance in cliff jumping faster than most people. Additionally, I always received an enhanced sense of physical ability and excitement, while standing up on a cliff before a jump.

After my friends and I got licensed, we incorporated camping and road trips into cliff jumping. Last summer, three of my friends and I road tripped from Portland, Oregon through Northern California and through Western Nevada, stopping along the way to hit swim holes that I had researched prior to the trip. This trip made me feel alive, and it was the first time I’d traveled alone for longer than 5 days without adults. This summer I made immense progress in the sport and by the end of the summer, I was confidently doing double frontflips (my most comfortable trick for high cliffs) off 65-75ft cliffs. Ultimately, this hobby that I had picked up on in middle school had allowed me to grow as a person and also track my progress as an adrenaline junkie.