In college I had a calculus class that was BRUTAL! My high school never got to pre calculus so this math class was insane. I needed it to apply to my major so I had to take it. 

The first day of class the teacher confused me to no end. The two students on either side of me were catching on. I asked them for help and soon we had a regular study group where both of them coached me along.

One night we had a two-hour study session and we were spent. The Aaron leaned over and said, "let's go rappelling!"

The girl in our group reminded him that it was 11:30pm and she was pretty sure it was dark outside. 

"Pick up your stuff, let's go!" he responded. We looked at each other and followed his enthusiastic order.

30 minutes later we found ourselves staring off into the abyss. He had driven to the top of a rim and had the truck lights shining on our entry point. He had anchored to the top of cliff. When I looked over, I could see NOTHING!

He said, "I've got to stay here to make sure you guys get strapped in correctly. Who's going first?"

Neither of us had gone before but because I was the man my ego pushed me to volunteer. Couldn't let the girl go first!

Bad choice.

He strapped me up and coached me over the edge. I couldn't believe I was doing it and my heart was racing. I worked my way over the edge. I looked down. BLACK!

Finally I got the nerve to descend a ways. As I hung I looked out and could see a few city lights off in the distance. It was pretty cool. 

I kept dropping. All of a sudden I realized I was at the end of the rope. I put my brake on and yelled up, "Aaron, there's no more rope and I'm not on the bottom!!"

The adrenaline was coursing through my veins. I was starting to shake because I'd stopped trusting the rope to support my weight and clung to the rope with muscles fully locked. 

"You have two choices," he replied. "You can climb back up or you can let go...I know the ground is right there somewhere...I was here two days ago."

I knew I wasn't climbing back up. I was spent and not going anywhere.

"Aaron, I'm shaking and I can't see the bottom!" I said somewhat frantically.

"It's OK, just let go."

Pretty soon I didn't have a choice. I slowly let the rope through the carabiner. I let go of the very end and dropped...

The ground was RIGHT THERE. I didn't drop at all. 

He could tell I had let go of the rope and I could hear him laughing up top. Punk! He had done the route and knew the rope was short by a foot.

Pretty soon they were both down with me and laughing. 

He was hard to trust for a little while after that.