Hi Mom

I really shouldn’t be putting this story online, mostly because I haven’t actually told my mother about this in person, yet. Last week Nativ went on Northern Tiyul and we did a lot of hikes and interesting trips. One of these trips was rafting down the Jordan River. Actually, you begin on a smaller river, then it merges with another river and those become the Jordan River. Prior to getting in the raft there are rubber ties you can put on your glasses to make sure they won’t fall off. I didn’t see them. I was also wearing my prescription sunglasses I had gotten the previous summer. Now that you all know where this is going, here’s what happened.

I was in a raft with Maya, Moshe, Zach, and Ira. We were actually really good at the whole rafting thing. Even with eighty or so other Nativers jumping around in the water trying to pull people off their boats we were making great time down the river. We got so far ahead of everyone that we decided to pull over and tell people we were stuck. Obviously, when they would come help us we’d splash them with water. Good ole fashion fun. Then everything changed. I jumped off of our boat to go shove the assistant director in the water. After succeeding (hell ya) I jumped into the water, off come the glasses, down they go. My first thought was, ‘HOLY CRAP MOM’S GOING TO KILL ME.’ My second thought was, ‘ just reach down, maybe they’re right there!’ They weren’t.

I debated with myself the best way to look for them. If I assume they float, then checking as I float down river is smart, but if they sank, then floating away looking for floating glasses took me away from the glasses, making it nearly impossible to find the spot they fell off again. I looked around the spot where I jumped in for a while as boats full of my friends floated by. Nothing. Although, Zack was a little bit to close to the edge of his boat and I got to close line him. That was fun.

I began floating down river with my hands scraping across the bottom of the Jordan. I caught up with my boat about a minute down river. They were all ready to get out and help me look for my glasses. Honestly, I was a little flustered and sick of fighting the current looking for a pair of glasses I was convinced was gone, but Ira told us he once found a watch he lost after getting out and looking for a half hour, so we took a chance. Ira, Maya, Zach, and I got out and started walking upstream back to where we had stopped before (Moshe stayed to hold the raft). I took off a shoe and began probing the rocks for my glasses. Again, I was let down and convinced I would never see my glasses again. I was ready to give up, we were way behind our group now, and I appreciated what my friends were doing for me, but it was hopeless.

Ira and I were standing in the middle of the Jordan River, waiting for Maya and Zach to reach us when Maya yells over, ‘well, they’re not yours, but I did find a pair of sunglasses…wait! They are yours!’ It sounded like some sort of cruel joke, but sure enough, she had stood up, sick of laying in the water blindly searching, and then she saw them. I went to put them on, praying that they were in fact mine and not some other pair of identical glasses (anything is possible…). We couldn’t believe it: she found them.

Everyone on Nativ who had passed us in the water was laying out in the sun. They were all amazed to see me wearing my glasses. It was pretty damn lucky.