The Zipline

 

“ I can’t do this.” I thought, looking into the bright blue sky, hoping that I could fly away. It was a nice day, and I was at a zipline course with my friends, on the fourth zipline. For all of the other ziplines, staff saw me and came to help. They helped by going down with me in their lap. My friends could all do the ziplines without any help. I wished I could be brave like them. I wanted to feel the wind on my face without staff carrying me along. 

 

Slowly I grabbed the zipline, and felt myself being pulled forward, then I pulled back and saw that I still had not left the platform I was on. I didn’t know if it was fear , or the fact I had never been here before. I hadn’t even gone on a zipline before. It could even be that I was afraid of how high up the ziplines were. One of these things was holding me back, not letting me go. It was like I was glued down to the floor. To distract myself from the fact that I couldn’t do it, I looked down, of course staff was coming to help me. I saw the gap of time that I had for doing the zipline close. I knew that if staff offered to take me down, I would say yes. Then thoughts overwhelmed me, and I knew that I wouldn’t go down this zipline.

 

“ Do you want me to help?” he asked me. He must have seen me waiting there for about ten minutes. I didn’t want to shout yes and draw unwanted attention to myself, so I nodded, a bit embarrassed. He climbed the pole I was on. He took the clip on his belt, and attached it to the line. I felt like I was millions of feet off the ground. I had developed a fear of being high, so I probably hadn’t made the best judgement. I waited, hoping this was all a dream, and when I would wake up, I would do a zipline all by myself. This thought was ended by staff saying, “ You ready?” Then, I knew it was not a dream. 

 

“ Yes.” I replied. He held me gently. I knew the drill. I closed my eyes and waited for it to be over. Then I heard ZOOM! The wind blew against my warm, cozy cheeks. I didn’t think about how this felt good, of course it only felt good because it was nice out and I was a bit hot. I opened my eyes just a smidge. I wanted to shut them all over again! But I did see that the end was coming up. I prepared myself for getting off. I shut my eyes again and hoped I wouldn’t have to go on another zipline the rest of the course. I didn’t want to go through waiting for staff to get me and being embarrassed any more. I crossed my fingers, and wished  over and over. There was a thump and I knew we had made it to the end of the line. I unclipped myself. I was ready to continue the course, I was about to clip myself on the next area. Then, staff said, 

 

“ There is one more zipline, can you do it alone?” That is exactly what I feared to hear. I hesitated, I was afraid. I really didn’t want to fall, or get hurt. He probably noticed because he said, “ It is shorter, and lower to the ground. I thought about how I never could make it through one zipline, about how I so wanted to go through one alone. I wanted to feel the satisfaction that only doing it myself could give me. My response was,

“ Okay.” I suddenly wished I hadn’t said yes.Through the rest of the course, I had a million thoughts pounding inside my head. None of them said that I could do it. They all said things like “ You can’t do it. You are the only one who can’t do it.” Then after what seemed like hours later, but was probably five minutes I saw it. The last zipline lay before me. I stared at it, then I clipped myself onto the line. I remembered how Ella told me how she thought my courage was greater than hers, that I could do it. “ One more question,” I said,

“ Yes.” Dafna replied.”

 

“ How do you stop it?” I asked.

 

“ Just put your feet out.”  That is when the countdown in my head started. It was as real as a bomb about to go off.

 

“ Five, four, three, two, one.” I grabbed the zipline, Then shut my eyes as tightly as I could and lifted my feet into the air. I had finally been freed of what held me back. I was thrilled! My heart raced. The moment I started to soar through the air, I realized that the thing that held me back most wasn’t the things I thought it was, it was me not believing I could do it. My thoughts of not being able to do it, the thoughts of bad things happening were the forces that had held me back all along. Two seconds later, it was over. I put my feet out and felt a thump, I had made it to the end of the course.

 

 I thought about how I was afraid, and then realized how silly it was of me to have been afraid in the first place. I hadn’t hurt myself, or fallen. The feeling I had was me being proud of myself. The feeling of completing that zipline was one of the best feelings I had ever felt. The feeling of finally doing it. The feeling of breaking through what held me before. I was proud of myself, even though I knew everybody else could do it, the feeling of doing it myself is one of the best things that I could ever feel.

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