First steps

[aadler]

 
Three of us (Susan, Roni and I) went zip-lining today at a place up in the wooded mountains. For all of us, it was a new experience; for Susan, it was a major issue. She has a deep and intense fear of heights. By which I mean, awful; one time, I saw her in tears trying to walk across a bridge (a wide, solid, concrete bridge), just because it was high; another time, I bought her surprise tickets to Camelot, with Richard Goulet as the headliner, and she couldn’t bear to stay because the tickets put us in the nosebleed seats. Given that, one may appreciate what it means that she wanted to do this.

It worked, too. The first two stations, she was shaking, with clammy sweat; for the remainder of the course, it just got better and better until she was having a fine time.

She hopes this indicates she may be able to step up for the next big thing she wants to do: skydiving.

Comments

[frogfarm]

Inspiring. I'm not that panicky about non-lethal heights, but anything I can't safely jump down from makes me nervous. I'd never skydive, though I have friends who do. It's enough for me to feel confident doing free climbing.

[aadler]

I’d love to do skydiving, but for me the break-point is cost. I just don’t have that kind of money to spare … and if I did, there are other things I’d rather spend it on.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Kudos for her workiing toward overcoming her fear. The other day I heard talk show host Craig Ferguson talk about how he fought his fear of flying by actually taking flying lessons -- now he's a licensed pilot. It can be done!

[aadler]

No telling if she’s overcome (or even got mostly past) her fear of heights, but she definitely has no further fear of zip-lining. (Though she wasn’t very happy on those occasions when the tree-platforms shook, usually when the last person in the group was zipping in from the previous station.)

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Seems to me zip-lining is a pretty darned good start, though. I usually do okay with heights as long as I have something to hold onto ... which is good, considering how much time I spent on my roof this summer.

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

It takes a major amount of strength to overcome a phobia like that. My hat is off to Susan. i've only done zip-lining once but I loved it.

[aadler]

And she’s continuing her other self-improvement programs as well. Twenty-five pounds more, and she’ll have lost half her body-weight. So, as far as that goes, the good news just keeps coming.