I like to think of myself as a person who lives her life without much fear. The truth is that I have a few fears I’d like to conquer. I have my eye on a big goal in the next 2 – 3 years and to achieve it I feel strongly that I need to conquer these fears.
Until I visited the Seattle Space Needle about 8 years ago I didn’t realize how much I was afraid of heights. I live on the the 6th floor of a condo building, but I don’t feel fear when I look out of my windows. My fear is more like if I’m out in the open and high up somewhere..say…on the Capilano Suspension Bridge which scares me shitless everytime I walk across it. And, walking over the Michigan Avenue bridge in Chicago freaks me out too. Who freaks out over walking over a bridge? Apparently I do. I mean, I still cross the bridge, I still cross the suspension bridge, but I want to stop those damn heart palpitations when I walk across, I want to do it without the freaking out part.
So, when my friend mentioned something about Treetop Trekking, I was intrigued. I wanted to try it, but then she retracted and told me she didn’t think I’d be into it. I was a bit offended…that is until I went online to figure out what it was exactly. Oh yeah, it certainly would not be something I could do because it would require someone with no fear of heights and being hung freely from..well…treetops. I gave her a big “no” on that. But, afterwards, I thought about it and so, I went back to the site where it had pictures of it and looked at it again, closely, and decided….that I should do it. I want to do it.
I think the only way to conquer the unknown, to conquer your fears, is to face them head-on. You can’t break those fears without confronting them. I’m no shrinking violet, so I refuse to let them get the better of me. If I’m to ever truly live life, then I need to conquer these fears.
