Suddenly, I was all alone; no one was near me. I saw bits of green, plant-like things scattered about on the sandy, rocky ground. The light wasn't as bright as moments before. My whole body was wet and my eyes stung. Where was I?

A few years ago, my family had gone to my grandparent's house outside the small town of Sturgis, Michigan. My grandpa had taken my sister, Meaghan, my brother, Alex, and me down the road to the bridge crossing over his river. Alex wanted to get closer to the river, so we raced down the steep slope into the muddy bank.

Alex got a long, flexible stick and though it looked like a fishing pole. Soon enough, we each had our own long sticks and were catching little, flying bugs for the bait. Once we caught the bait, we began to fish with our “fishing poles.”

All of a sudden, I was all alone. Where did everyone go? It was a bit darker. Did a cloud suddenly cover the sun? I was soaked. What happened? I was so confused when I saw the sandy ground with green plants and stones scattered about instead of the muddy ground. I don't believe I've ever been as confused as I was at that moment.

Not a minute had passed before a strong hand grabbed me and pulled me up out of the very shallow river. At that same moment, I realized that I had in fact fallen into the river. Starting to cough and gulp in fresh air, I realized for the first time that I'd been holding my breath. You know how you breath after you run the mile as fast as you can? Well, I was breathing, if possible, even harder. I looked up to see everyone laughing.

Before we even had the chance to catch any fish, my grandpa took us all back to his house where I cleaned up and changed into new clothes. Meaghan, Alex, and I ran outside, playing n the tree fort with the kittens. We had had enough of the river for a while.