If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?
Each month, we get a couple of days off from m1n1$try to catch up on things and explore the country. Some of our squad decided to take to opportunity to go bungee jumping!
A couple of weeks ago, I faced one of my greatest fears. It was something that even just the thought of would make me shake. That’s ironic, because I love heights and have been skydiving twice. I’m not generally a fearful person, but there are some things in life that terrify me. Public speaking used to be one of the. Just the possibility of having to speak in front of a group of people would make me sweat and shake, but thanks to college I had to confront those fears. I met my fear head on, and while I am still not a fan of public speaking, my sweat glands do not quite resemble a raging river anymore.
On the race, one of my greatest fears is getting food poisoning on a long bus ride. The thought of the humiliation of uncontrollably pooping my pants in a small metal box freaks me out. Every time I’m faced with the possibility of a long bus ride, I get a little nervous and rethink all the sketchy food I ate in the last 24 hours. Maybe you didn’t want to know that, but now you do. You’re welcome.
As much as I love flying, heights, and cliff jumping, the thought of all of those combined made me rethink my life choices. Although I’ve been skydiving twice, the thought of jumping head first off a bridge terrified me. But why not? Better conquer my fears than to always regret not challenging myself. And I’m so glad I did.
We arrived at the bungee site after a terrifying 3-hour bus ride into the mountains over torn up gravel roads. With many near miss collisions and bumping along roads with mountain on one side of the bus and sheer cliff on the other, the bus ride may have been the most dangerous part of the day. The bus finally pulled up to the site, a suspension bridge hanging in between two sides of a canyon. Far below, a river ran through the canyon, and tiny little farms could be seen across the valley on the side of the mountains.
We crossed the bridge to get to the resort on the other side where we were divided into two groups. There, we were trained on how to jump, how to use the harness, and how to prepare to be pulled back up after the jump. The whole time our instructor was talking, I was so nervous. Walking back out to the bridge, it just got worse. I was in the second group to go, so I stood with the rest of my group on the vantage point and watched. When it was our turn, we all walked onto the bridge. Weirdly, I became more calm. We got harnessed in, and in almost no time it was my turn to jump. They connected me to the bungee cord, and I slowly walked out onto the platform. I tilted my head up, put my arms out, and jumped.
The free fall was only a couple of seconds, but falling head first is so disorienting. It’s amazing the amount of thoughts that rush through your mind in the span of a moment. All I remember was wondering when I would quit falling and when cord would catch. The feeling after was exhilarating and I would 100% do it again.
