1

Mitch Hartnell
Enc 1101-0009
Assignment #1
9/2/14

The Adventurist
Ding-Dong
During one summer when I was 11, my friend and I were outside trying to figure
out something to do. We had been outside for a long time now and were stumped. I was
looking around, up and down my street looking for an adventure. I remembered that there
was a house two doors down that was very intimidating (we were young and got
intimidated very easily). Those neighbors never came outside and were just not friendly. I
wondered if they were home and decided to dare my friend to ding dong ditch the house.
I knew that a mean Chinese lady lived there, but he had no clue. He didnt know anything
about the neighbors, so I told him they were nice and harmless. He refused to do it at first
and then I convinced him to do it. The first time he went to ring the doorbell and darted
away, nobody came to the door. I knew because I was watching across the street behind
my neighbors bushes with my brother. I yelled at my friend to ring it one more time and
he barely gave in. As soon as he rang it, he didnt get past half of the driveway when the
door whipped open, and there she was: the mean Chinese lady. She began to scream at
my friend violently and relentlessly. My friend didnt run away but froze and returned to
her. He said he was sorry but she didnt care. She just kept it coming. He started crying at
this point and apparently she asked him why he did it, and he said because I made him do

2
it. He pointed at where I was and she started to scream at me, trying to get me to go to
them. I instead told my brother to stay where he was and I sprinted to my house. I quickly
got my mom and told her to go talk to the lady. She quickly went over to make peace.
The lady threatened to call the cops multiple times and kept asking about what school we
went to and who are teachers were for some reason. Bottom line is that we got out of the
mess and ended up laughing about it later.

Lost in the Dunes

My friend and I decided to try cross-country for school one summer in order to
prepare us for soccer season. After a couple weeks of running the same routes the coach
had the team run a different route. It was near Lake Michigan by some sand dunes. My
friend and I had a hard soccer workout the night before so we decided to ride out bikes
this time. We started at about 6 oclock. We were ahead of everyone because we were on
bikes. We got to the entrance of the sand dunes and there were two paths to choose. We
couldnt decide which one was right, so we chose a random one. We started on the path
and it was pretty easy at first. After a while the path stated to turn from dirt to sand,
making it very difficult to ride the bikes. The path also became smaller the farther we
kept going. We began to become skeptical if this was the right way, but we didnt know
if this was how the route was since we had never been here before. We just decided to
push through since it was getting dark out and it would take too long to turn back. We
tried to pedal faster to get out of the dunes, but over brush began to get extremely thick.
We had to get off our bikes and walk them through the so-called sand dunes still. We
were getting scraped up really bad from pushing through brush, trees, and going over

3
large rocks. We didnt know what we got ourselves into. It was pitch black out now and
we thought we werent going to make it back. We couldnt call for directions or anything
because the coach was holding onto our phones for us. As soon as we thought we were
completely lost, we saw a road. We were so relieved. We immediately got out onto the
road and we knew where we were. We rode back lifelessly to our houses regretting to
ride our bikes since the workout ended up being more intense than running was. We
never rode our bikes on that route again.

Ocean Front Flip

My friends family has extended family that has a beach house in St. Augustine.
They were able to use it for vacation one year. So instead of going there by themselves,
they invited my family. The drive there was packed full and it was super long: 18 hours.
Once we were there, it was great. The house was literally on the beach: The ocean was
the backyard. One afternoon my friend and I took a canoe out to the water. It was a nice
day out, not too many waves and not too hot or humid out. The sky was blue and clear
with the sun shining bright. We got the canoe out on the water pretty quickly and we
were trying to ride the little waves that were rolling in. We were not that good at keeping
the canoe straight, which was critical, so we didnt flip the canoe due to the waves,
although they were smaller. After a while of riding the waves, we began to not pay
attention to them. We were busy messing around with our brothers canoe. Out of
nowhere the water became very choppy. I didnt know that the sea could change so
quickly. My friend and I looked around out towards the ocean and we saw a huge wave
that was only about 15 feet from us. We immediately tried to turn the canoe

4
perpendicular to it, to avoid being destroyed by it, but we couldnt do it in time. The
wave crashed on us and really smacked us down under water. I was swirling under water
for about 10 seconds. I frantically tried getting to the top, and when my friend and I did
another wave smashed our canoe right into our heads. We immediately were disoriented
from the collision and went back under for another 10 seconds. We struggled to get to the
top of the water, and barely did; we both made immediate eye contact with each other
and then swam to the shore as fast as we could to avoid any more. As soon as we reached
the shore, we just laid on the sand trying to get a hold of ourselves and regain our senses.
It was a very intense experience and I recommend not underestimating waves.

Free Climbing
Last Spring break up in Suwannee, Georgia, two of my friends and I went to see
one of the friends dad. A couple days into the trip, we decided to do something fun
outdoors. My friend dad suggested that we go hiking somewhere, since there are a lot of
hills and cliffs in the area. After a little research on the Internet, we decided to try out the
Chattahoochee River. We headed out on a Saturday afternoon and it was beautiful
outside. We got there and hiked up a huge hill to start with. We scaled cliffs and free
climbed on rocks, and decided to cross the river by jumping on rocks to get over. The
water was full of rapids. It was very thrilling to cross over it, knowing that one slip could
be quite the ride. After we managed to make it to the other side, we scaled some more
cliffs until we got on top of a huge cliff that had a clear opening to the water. The top of
the cliff was about 25 yards from the water and there were rocks submerged only a
couple of inches in the water at the bottom. The water was full of people in canoes,

5
kayaks, and tubes. They were all wading down the river, and by the looks of them,
wanted a show. They all saw us and told us to jumpso we did. As soon as I left the
ground, adrenaline was pumping through my body and it was exhilarating, not knowing if
I was going to clear the rocks. The feeling of free falling is like no other. Im a total
outdoor enthusiast.
Adventurer
Why I do the things I do and act the ways I do come from when I was very small.
Growing up, my mom tells me I was very curious and always was doing crazy things.
She told me I was like a daredevil. I got the nickname Curious George, like the monkey
from the children books because just like the monkey always wandered away and got into
a mess or trouble, I would too. I guess I never got out of that stage in life. I will always
love to do the most outrageous and adventurous things and even get into some crazy
situations.