I can still feel the heat of the sun and could feel the dry air in my lungs. Excitement rose up inside me, and I rushed to the front of the crowd of people walking with me.

“I am so excited because I love to overcome my fears, especially my fear of heights,” I said to my friend Vanessa.

We walked to the ropes course and thought to myself, this is higher than I thought it would be. I could feel the dry grass breaking beneath my feet, and I could feel more sweat dripping down my face. I did not know if it was because of the heat or that I was nervous. I told myself, do not back out now because you already talked about how you are gonna overcome your fear.

The whole group sat around on the hard logs to watch the instructors demonstrate one of the courses. I became more nervous as they got to the end of their talk.

“We need someone to volunteer and show the rest of the group how to complete this course,” said the short, buff instructor. I felt the urge to raise my hand and be the brave one in the group. My own body was fighting my arm to hold itself up when eventually someone else volunteered. I thought to myself you did not want to be the first one to mess up anyways.

The girl walked up, and the instructor placed the dirty and dusty helmet on her head, strapped her in a harness, and gave her gloves that were too big for her hands. I could feel my anxiety and fear rising in my stomach, and it felt like butterflies but the bad kind. The girl climbed up the pole, jumped off the top, and came down slowly attached to the rope. I thought to myself how does she have that much courage? I am not gonna be able to do this.

When the group split up to do separate courses, I went to the lowest ropes course which was a partner course. I chose a partner and I climbed up the pole first. As I began to climb, I could feel my palms getting more sweaty, and my legs started to shake. As I got to the top, my whole body began to shake, and I could not stand steadily. My partner climbed up with no problem and seemed very calm. I said to my partner, “How are you so calm?”. They responded, “I trust the instructors, and I have faith in God that he will protect me”. My partner and I quickly climbed across and rang the bell. The sound of that bell gave me relief, and finally I jumped down and slowly got leveled to the ground.

Time was almost up to go back to the camp we were staying at, and I wanted to do one last course since I had only done one. The next course was taller, and I did not want to climb it because I was scared of something going wrong with the rope. I heard a voice telling me, “Don’t be afraid. Have the faith and courage because I will always protect you”. I turned around and saw no one.

I felt this wave of courage and braveness come over me like I could do anything, and I got in line behind other people doing the course. I got anxious, but I told myself you can do this because God and everyone around you believes in you. I began to climb the pole, and finally reached the top but had to stand up. I sat at the top of the pole for a few minutes and found the strength to pull myself up and stand. I felt such relief, and I was so proud of myself when I reached the top of the pole. The hardest part is over and now all I have to do is jump off. I closed my eyes and felt myself jump off the pole, and I immediately felt the rope catch me and lower me down. As I got to the ground, I could hear everyone saying, “Good job Skylar!”, “You did great!”. I felt so proud of myself, and all I could feel was God’s presence and protection around me. At that point I felt like I could do anything because of my strong faith in God.