Making the Climb

  I just finished my last year in middle school and I was excited for summer break. Everything was going to be perfect. I was going to hang out with friends a lot, go to the beach, and the best part was my family was taking a trip to Italy. We were going there for a whole month. It was going to be the best. We were going to see all sorts of different places like the alps and Lake Como. Well here’s where the story begins. Today was the day we were leaving to go to Italy. All of our stuff was packed up and ready to go so we loaded it all up into the car. When everything was in the car my family squeezed ourselves in and headed for the airport. Let me set the scene for you. We live in VT so it is not the best weather all the time and today was one of those days where the weather isn’t so great. It was a mess outside. Rain pouring down outside not a single sight that it would stop any time soon. The dark rain clouds looked like they went on forever. Also there was mud everywhere. I was so happy we were leaving and I think everyone else was happy too. My poor dad tried his best driving in all this bad weather but mother nature hit him with a really hard punch.  A branch fell in the road as my dad was driving and we hit it. It popped our tier and that was the start of everything that would happen after. The tire pop was fixed easily because we had a spare. Everything after was a little bit harder. We got to the airport late and were late for our flight. Our plane was supposed to leave at 3:00 but we got there at 3:05 and then had to check our bags. After checking our bags my family and I ran as fast as we could. Sprinting through the airport. The more we ran the more tired we got but the closer we got to our boarding station. We got there as the plane was about to leave. But we got there just in time to board the plane. Finally we got on the plane tired and out of breath. I was ready to sleep. Unfortunately that was one of the worst plane rides of my life. It was bumpy and I got plane sick. I didn’t sleep for hours and was tired for the first day of our trip. Somehow the rest of my family got a great sleep. The hardest part of the trip was the climb through the mountains called the alps. My family was really excited for this hike. Little did we know what was going to happen. As we were climbing the trails there was a storm that struck. Instead of making the hike down we go ahead to try and find shelter with the sage advice of my dad. We finally found shelter in a cave made of big boulders. It was a little damp and we found some bizarre cave drawings but other than that it was pretty good shelter. What happened next was the hardest part of our trip. As we were waiting in the cave for the storm to pass I wanted to explore. My dad said he would come with me and that we could explore together. So we left my mom and brother at the entrance of the cave to keep watch in case the storm stopped. My dad and I were having the time of our lives. We thought this cave was one of the coolest things ever. As we looked around more we found all of these cool little spaces and exits from the big part of the cave. I was climbing up a rock trying to get through a little space when my dad found an even cooler space. It looked like a small mudslide. That's how I would probably describe it. When I was getting down to go check it out my foot slipped. I fell and landed on the ground hard. I went to stand up. I felt this pang in my calf. It hurt a lot. I looked back and my leg was streaming with dirty blood. I couldn’t show my dad he would be so mad I got hurt. I didn’t want to ruin our trip. After we checked out the little space my mom called for us saying the storm stopped. We got out of the cave after climbing around for a little bit more. I stepped out into the sunlight and my calf was completely exposed. It looked like I had just fought a bear. The minute my parents saw it they thought it was crucial for it to be treated right away. We were not able to treat it right away because we still had to make a trek down the hill. Our family started to make our way down but my leg gave out. I couldn't walk. My calf went numb. My parents weren't able to carry me down. I had to slide down at some points and others I would have to hop. I ended up hoping right into a nettle bush. Which made it even harder. We eventually made it. We got down. I was immediately rushed to the hospital where the doctors bandaged up my calf and gave me stuff to put on the nettle rashes. I ended up being able to walk fine after a little bit of medicine. After all of that, the rest of my trip was great walking around town, sitting by the pool, and going out to the great Italian restaurants. That was on an interesting vacation. 

Written by Avery Antonioli

Grade 8