This was written by me in Grade 10.
It would be so much easier to let go. Let your fingers lose their grip. Relax your muscles and let yourself fall. Feel the cold air rush past you as you descend at dizzying speeds. Your stomach would flip itself over inside of you, and you would only have time for one last bloodcurdling scream. But eventually you’d hit the bottom, and would all be over.
It would be so much easier.
Yet here you are, hanging on the edge of the biggest cliff you’ve ever seen. Your arms are trembling as you desperately try to hang on to that tuft of grass. Every muscle in your arms is screaming at you to relieve the pain. Your feet dangle below you, and the fear of loss is so great that the tears are blurring your vision. Every inch of you is rigid.
It would be so much easier.
You could try to pull yourself up. But then your muscles would only cry louder and the pain would reach new extremes. The immeasurable torture you’re experiencing would only worsen. You don’t even know if you have the strength to do it. You’re already exhausted from hanging on for this long.
It would be so much harder to keep going.
That’s where some people give up. Where they give up on themselves, and everything they’re fighting to get back to. Overcome with pain, exhaustion and emotion, they decide that the odds against them are too great and
they
let
go.
What are you going to do? Are you going to give into it? Let the frustration, the intensity, the sheer madness of the situation overtake you? Will you decide that the only important thing in this instant is ending the pain? Are you just going to give up after holding on for so long?
Or are you going to get out?
It’s gonna hurt. You’re going to drive every aspect of yourself to its breaking point. The pain will be so extreme that your body will scream with a deafening voice ‘Let go NOW.’ But you’re not going to listen. You’re going to mat your body with sweat. Your hair will get in your tear-stained eyes. You’re going to get dirty. You’ll look like an idiot.
But you’re going to get out.
You’re going to keep thinking about letting go. Seconds will feel like hours of grueling agony. You’ll nearly lose your grip several times and almost plummet to your doom. But you’re going to hang on. Slowly, agonizingly, your arms will get you a few inches higher.
You’re getting out of here.
Even now the pain remains, pulling with all its might for blessed relief. But you can see the top now. A few more inches and you can swing your leg up and get out. But man, do those last few inches hurt. You now hurt ten times more than when you did at the start. You never knew you could fight this hard. At last, you get your elbow up on top and begin to pull yourself out. You swing your leg up and roll onto the surface, gasping for air.
It would have been so much easier to let go.
But now you’re free.
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If you liked this, check out some of Matthew's other works.