The first time I went zip-lining, I was terrified.
I stayed in the back of the group the entire time giving myself a pep talk saying that I could do it. I told myself that I would complete the course and I wouldn’t allow my fear to rob me of another experience.
And I did complete it, which has been one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had.
This time, I hung back not because I was scared, but because I hoped I could be to the group what my love was to me: support and encouragement.
I’d like to think I helped my girls, but to be honest, they helped me more than they will ever know.
Sure, I encouraged them telling them they could do it. But when the course got tough, when my over-confidence got the best of me and my weight against the many swing-styled obstacles scared the crap out of me, it was them who coaxed me to the next obstacle.
There was one obstacle specifically that stopped me dead in my tracks. It was comprised of several swinging logs. The first swing had one log, the second had two, the third had one log and so forth.
I got to one of the swings with one log and it didn’t matter how tight I held on to both the red and white ropes, which was supposed to make the course more doable, I just couldn’t slow down the swing.
I was trying my best to stay calm, to shift my weight a little and not think about the ground below, but swinging in the air for what felt like 10 minutes tends to make you lose focus. And it didn’t help that my leg wouldn’t stop shaking making it almost impossible to confidently move to the next log.
I silently gave myself another pep talk as the rest of the group encouraged me on. I made a daring step to the next swing with only one more to go before the platform.
Wooh!
With that out of the way, I could finally get to the fun part, actually zip-lining.
As I write this, I find it funny how I described it as the “fun part” when a year ago, I was just sure something terrible was going to go wrong.
Fear is tricky that way.
*Kanye shrug*
p.s Please excuse my hair in that picture. It was in a cute pineapple, but it almost got caught in my gear and I am not quite ready for a hair cut.
p.p.s There is a short video of my adventures on Instagram
