Conquering Heights: A Personal Account of Overcoming Fear

I could feel the tight harness coiled around my thighs, supporting me from falling to an inevitable doom 75 feet below. My clammy hands grasped the rope I was attached to as if the rope was my life. I think I had left my stomach back on the ground; all I could feel was regret and self pity. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t tell the counselor to somehow manage to get me back down. I then swallowed down the bile coming up my throat, and it was at that moment I got launched across the sky.

To be fair, the experience was super exhilarating and amazing, but I had gotten off on the wrong foot. About 30 minutes earlier, I had drowned myself in a pool of self doubt, sincerely believing there was absolutely no way I would be able to face my fear

Now, this got everyone’s attention. Suddenly, everyone was staring at me, and at that moment, I urged the sun to come out from behind the clouds, so I could melt into a puddle. No, no, no, I thought. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t say anything, for I didn’t want to talk to the counselor more than I really had to and I knew that eventually I’d have to ride the swing.

As I stepped up to the front of the line with my harness and helmet secure, the counselor gave me a reassuring smile, which made me feel better. He buckled me to all the equipment, and within 5 minutes, I was all set to go. I placed my hand on the first metal bar and pulled myself up as if I were climbing a ladder. That’s basically what it was. A 85 foot ladder.

The rope was a long snake that reached to the very top of the right pillar, and stretched down to the ground. As I climbed up the pillar, the rope danced and shimmied. I climbed and climbed and climbed, but when I was about 10 feet (about an elephant high) in the air, I made the common mistake of looking down. My hands started shaking, but no worries. Even if I were to fall, the harness and rope would catch me, just like the system of a rock