Geronimo! Part 1 of 2

Annika has a classmate named Maggie Su. Maggie’s mom wanted to do something special for her daughter to celebrate graduation from eighth grade. So Mrs. Su chartered a large boat and invited a bunch of Maggie’s classmates and their families.

So last Saturday, Annika, and Elise, and I spent the day on a boat. We were accompanied by a dozen parents, assorted younger siblings, and thirty of Annika’s classmates. Those thirty classmates -of course- also happen to be my students.

The boat started from the southern tip of Kowloon. So after eight months in Hong Kong we finally took a cruise through Victoria Harbor –something most folks do the first few days they're here. After motoring for an hour, the boat pulled into a cove belonging to one of Hong Kong’s numerous outlying islands. The boat could only get within 200 meters of the beach, so that’s where it anchored.

The large boat had been towing behind it a small speed boat and one of the crew started shuttling people to the beach. A few us, overtaken by a moment of manly stupidity, decided to swim. Strangely enough, we dads made it just fine. It was all those eighth-grade hot-shot superstar athletes that were huffing and puffing and complaining.

Those people who choose to check out the beach didn’t stay long. It turned out the real action for the day was back on the big boat. The boat crew were pulling inner tubers with the small boat using the big house boat as the launching station. And those kids who weren’t busy tubing had discovered the roof of the big boat. Those who had mustered the courage were leaping off the roof and making the fourteen foot plunge into the Pacific Ocean.

After I made several obligatory jumps just to keep up with my eighth grade students, I then became gripped by the idea of what it was I really wanted to do. And because I was scared absolutely witless, I knew I had to do it. After all, it’s not like I'd never done it before; it had just been just a few years.

I didn’t say anything to anyone, but it must have been the way that I was hesitating on the edge of the roof. Or maybe it was the focused look in my eyes. Or perhaps it was the fear on my face that gave me a way, but the word started to spread among the eighth-grade boys that Mr. VanNoord was about to dive.