Robert Tries To Push Me Into The Santonio River

This is a speech I wrote for a school project.

I have had a lot of scary experiences- from hiking through the woods of my favorite summer camp in the night last summer, to when I sprained my ankle 3 days before graduation in 2017, even going back to my young childhood when my mother wouldn’t come home and I thought she had abandoned me. But only one thing has ever triggered my fight or flight instincts. That was one evening when our class took a trip to Santonio.

I am deathly afraid of water. I can’t swim, I hate being wet, and I absolutely can’t stand being cold. So even though the Santonio River was just a foot or 2 deep at that point, I really wish there were guard rails alongside the sidewalk. the teachers had all decided that it would be smart to go walking along the river at night. Somehow I had ended up on the left side of the pack, along the river. I really wish I hadn’t, because I spent a majority of the walk looking directly at the ground to make sure I didn’t misstep and fall into the river. Another thing I am deathly afraid of is being grabbed from behind at night in a city I’ve never been to. If I have to deal with both at the same time, things won’t end well.

Another thing to note is that Robert is the scum of the earth. He doesn’t really care much for other people, which usually doesn’t go too poorly for me because Erik is generally the victim of his villainy. But this isn’t always the case. Sometimes he terrorizes other people too. I’m not prepared for it when it happens to me. And I’m especially not prepared for it when I’m afraid I’m gonna fall into the river.

When Robert grabbed me while our group was walking along the river, I didn’t think about it at all. I didn’t know what was going on and I really didn’t want to know what it felt like to be thrown into a river. So before I had any time to find out what was happening, I swung my bag around to hit him in the head. But I slipped on something- I don’t know what. Next thing I knew I was lying on the ground and Robert was laughing like a stupid bazlor. Ally was the only person who noticed I wasn’t laughing along. She tried to make light of it by saying she’d push Robert in the river, but I actually did want him to be thrown into the river. I tried to distance myself from everyone else until we got back. While it may not seem like a whole lot, I was really angry.

This speech isn’t about a lesson learned for me. It’s about my scariest moment. But it can be a lesson learned for everyone here. Don’t grab people from behind- especially not at night, and especially not next to a body of water. If you do that, I’m sure Ally would be glad to throw you in the river.