Sometimes you just need a push.
The other time I was compelled to overcome my fear of heights was in front of a bunch of teenagers. Luckily, I got a push.
We spend the Sunday of workcamp week on team-building exercises. If you’ve ever been to summer camp or a corporate retreat, you’re probably familiar with many of these activities — low-ropes stuff such as alligator crossing and the spider web.
But sometimes, we did high-ropes courses.
High-ropes courses are teamwork plus personal battles. And for me, or anyone with a fear of heights, a big-time personal battle. Fun for all on the two-line cable crossings, unstable bridges, and the suspended cargo net. If you freeze up, or can’t participate, everyone knows your shame.
At this particular course, you end your time in the tree tops with a zipline trip down the hill. Fun!
I traverse the course with sweaty palms and weak knees, determined not to let these bouncy and bubbly teens see me struggling. I don’t look down. I never look down.
I make it to the zipline platform. Phew, I’ve done it. They won’t know.
I hook in with some help from a worker and freeze. Like on the 10 meter platform, I can’t make myself jump off. I have no idea why my brain let me make it through the rest of the course but froze up here at the end. Maybe it’s because there’s nothing under me. Maybe I don’t trust that itty-bitty cable. Regardless, I can’t do it.
So I come up with a solution. I turn my head to the zipline-hooker-upper guy behind me and say, “Push me,” fully expecting to have to explain my novel idea.
I start to formulate my explanation, but to my surprise, he just smiles and says, “Sure thing.” This was not his first rodeo.
And he pushes me.
A thousand feet of exhilaration later, with my feet firmly planted on the ground, I feel the butterflies, but this time of joy.
