You have to do it, you do CrossFit

One of my little brothers had his party at a local ropes course. I have never, ever wanted to do a ropes course or to ride a zip-line, and I certainly don't remember the last time I wanted to climb a tree. So I was happy that all the spots were filled and I could just go and take pictures.

Then a spot opened up...So I declined to make a decision, insisting that I really needed to see it before I could ever decide to do it. My family knows well that I have a few fears: I can be a tad claustrophobic (much to several people's entertainment I was in a Halloween maze, in a tunnel, made out of black plastic mind you, and I barely made it out. And I really mean that. I was laying there on the ground wondering how long the staff would wait before they just opened up the wall to get me out. But I did make it out on my own.) With this, I was trying to work the fear of heights angle. There was no way being on those ropes could make me feel claustrophobic, but I really didn't think I could do it without freaking out and needing to be helped down mid-course.

The whole way up to the course my family kept saying that I just had to do it. If I do CF, I had to be able to do this. Every time the guide talked about stretching yourself or trying something new and challenging, various members gave me the look, the look that meant that this is what you tell us CF is, you have to be able to do this.

It used to be that I really could have plead out of the event just due to the first rope tube ladder. I could have argued that I really might not have been able to get up. I knew that wasn't true anymore and so did everyone else. So I went up.

I have learned that often I really do want to try these new things, but fear of failure and the unknown has often stopped me. Not today. I did it.

I climbed up the rope ladder, walked across the rope bridge, the log bridge, the rope walk, the jungle rope walk. and I made it down the zip line. At times it was easier than I had expected, at other times harder, and overall it was more fun than I had hoped!