Sored By New Heights

I woke up this morning feeling so tired and beaten.

After landing from Albuquerque Friday morning, I was home for not even five minutes before I had to unpack and repack so that we could go to Estes Park for the Chamber's ambassador retreat.

On Saturday, the activity for the ambassadors was to climb a 35-40 foot tree, go through a rope course over 40 feet in the air, and go down the zip line. As you may or may not know, I am afraid of heights and get this weird feeling behind my knees whenever I look down even 15 feet in air so imagine how I felt up in that skinny yet stable tree.

So I climbed the tree, walked to the next tree on about a 20-foot beam, walked on a rope that was probably about 40 foot long in the tree, and then went down the zip line, all about 40 feet in the air. You know, actually doing the walking and moving wasn't so bad, it was mostly the waiting. Whenever I was waiting at the tree getting ready for the next step, the wind was blowing hard and it gave me time to think about what I was doing, thus making me nervous and overthinking things.

Walking through the course was also physically exhausting, constantly telling myself not to fall because I assumed that I strapped myself in correctly but one can never be sure, so I didn't want to take that chance of falling on the rocks 40 feet below me. Using my arms to drag the "lobster claws" on times when I felt like I was losing my balance was physically draining.

When I was done, I was glad that I did it though I have no intentions to ever do it again! I remember falling asleep on the couch and kept waking up because I pictured myself on that rope again looking down with the wind blowing at me. I guess it took me that long to process it! Then I woke up this morning feeling stiff in both arms, as if I got a flu shot in both of those arms, and the same feeling in my buttocks.

In the long run, I am still afraid of heights but at least for one moment I was able to overcome it. Never again though.