Driving up north with your best friend is fun. Thoughts of previous occasions fill my head. Thoughts of tubing, swimming, racing to the corner to get ice cream, while feeling the air rush through the tree. The curiosity of adventures yet to come excite me. I like a certain amount of risk, but what I don't like is being suddenly dropped into frightening decisions that lead to stress. My gaze looking out the window brings my memory to a few years ago while up north, I swung on a rope over tons of people with chants of many voices into the water. This was what brought about my step in overcoming my fear of heights.

When my friend Sara and I arrive I see people gathering around talking. Seeing people that I have known forever I start to talk as they describe the coolest thing. We all walk down a path to the water where there is a tall wooden skyscraper statue that I stand at the bottom of. Tilting my head up, I think, “O my gosh how high is that.” With a chill in the air I feel going up my back; I feel a rush of heat move through me.

“It is 70 feet high then goes to 90 and is over 1,000 feet long.” This coming from a petite sized woman with short hair that I never met before, she was the instructor. I hear a zip noise, and then we all watched two boys glide across the sky. I remembered the rush that I felt doing this before at my Aunt Robins, when my Uncle built his zip line at his house. While looking around, viewing animals and the different trees, nature can become so soothing. I feel butterflies flying around in circles inside my stomach. A smiling face walks up to me and holds out a harness.

“This will be fun”, the instructor said, Sara and I gave a look of hesitation as we headed towards a line. Two by two the line we stood in shrunk. Taking my first step up higher, and then another even higher, the creek became faster, and sounded louder in my mind. I see a yellow flag waving through the shining of the daytime sun. The shaking of the wooden tower made my heart feel heavy.

Glancing down I quickly jerked my head looking to the left to see Sara. Her pupils enlarged at the click of the “D ring” being connected to the wire. “I’m so scared,” I tell her, the wind begins to pick up and then, the yellow flag was changed to green.

While talking to each other, we both came to the conclusion that on the count of three we would run and jump. We’ve done this before on hot summer days jumping in the water at the beach. Will Sara jump when she says she will? I held on tight noticing my hands turned red. Did the instructor secure my harness? Am I going to feel a long drop? Then I said a prayer in my head, my feet start moving like a runner.

Everything left my head, like someone unplugged a drain. The stress suddenly left me and fell on the ground. Shouts and loud claps fill my ears. A big smile arose on my face. I noticed while watching Sara; I could reach out and touch the trees around me. I was in such joy knowing that I had courage to experience this adventure.