So after the
corndogs and watermelon...
We headed to the ropes course,
aka
the-place-our-camera-ran-out-of-battery-and-I-completely-overestimated-my-physical-abilities.
Don't worry, I'll walk you through it.
The part of the ropes course that we completed consisted of
1) climbing your choice of rock wall {vertical/more difficult, or slanted/easier}
2) sitting at the top of a
super {my guess is 40ft-60ft}
high tower that leans, shakes and
blows in the wind.
3) pushing yourself
off of that tower
4) zip-lining to a slab of concrete
5) lowering yourself to the ground
Sounds easy,
right? WRONG.
We had walked over that morning to scope things out, which gave us all time to decide
if we even wanted to do this, and if so, which
wall we wanted to climb.
I
knew I wanted to do this.
When else would I get to go to summer camp? But I had been debating all through lunch which rock wall I wanted to climb.
My conversation with myself went something like this:
"Should I do the vertical wall or the slanted one? The vertical one looks
really hard. And I know that some people can't even
climb it. But those people must be
really out of shape,
right?? And I am definitely
in shape.
{Ha!} I mean I run regularly, and I do
yoga. And yoga
isn't easy. So I can
definitely maybe do the hard wall. But what if I can't?
If I don't try I'll never know. I mean, I probably can. It just might take me a while, and that's okay,
isn't it?"
So that was it. I was going to climb the vertical wall, and if it took me an hour,
no. big. deal. At least I could say I did it.
Michelle and her friends gave us our instructions and helped us get into our gear.
There were several others signed up for this activity, so we
happily let them go first.
And as we watched the first two guys go, my confidence began to build. Especially after watching this guy {below}. He seriously looked like spiderman and was at the top in less than seven minutes.
{And shortly after this our camera died.}
Next was my turn. I was ready. I had watched two other people climb this thing, I paid attention to which 'rocks' they held onto, and I just
knew I could do it. I would be slow,
much slower than spiderman, but I would do it.
Michelle used her best knot-tying skills to secure the rope to my belt. I double checked my helmet strap, faced the wall, took a deep breath and
went for it.
"Spotters ready!?"
"Ready!"
"Belay team ready!?"
"Ready!"
"Climbing!!"
"Climb on!"
{That means 'go'}
I reached out and grabbed my first rock, the same one spiderman had used. Man, those things were
hard to grip! Imagine trying to hold onto a tennis ball that is cut in half and glued to a wall.
Yeah, it's that hard.
As I secured my grip, I grabbed another rock with my left hand and took my first step onto the wall.
My fingers were already starting to burn. I managed to get both feet onto the wall, and boy did I feel proud.
{At this point I was about a foot off the ground}
Me: "Mom, I'm doing it! Take my picture!"
Mom: "Emily honey, the camera died."
Me: "But mom, we
have to have pictures of me doing this!"
And then my proud moment wore off and I realized how hard this actually was.
Let me tell you just
standing on the wall was hard work.
Me {still only about a foot off the ground}: "Guys this is really hard. I don't know if I can do this."
Alicia: "Come on, Em! Just take another step!"
Shell: "Em, there's another rock right above your right foot. Just step up there!"
Me: "Shell, can't you just pull on that rope and get me to the top?!"
Trevor:
Laughing to himself...
At this point both of my hands were
burning. Who knew holding onto a rock would be so difficult?? I remembered spiderman telling me to climb with my legs, not with my arms, so I did my best to put more weight on on my feet.
That's easier said than done. Remember those cut-in-half tennis balls?
Try standing on them...with your entire body flat against a wall.
I was able to take one more step with my right foot.
And at that point it felt like I had been on the wall
forever. My arms started shaking, my legs felt weak, my toes were going numb, and
all-of-a-sudden I
thought I was
twelve feet in the air.
Me: "I can't do this anymore! I'm too scared of heights!"
Shell: "Em, you're not that high!"
Me: "No, Shell I'm really scared! Just put me down! Put me on the ground!"
Trevor
{Still laughing}: "Emily, you're less than two feet off the ground! Just straighten your legs and your feet will touch!"
And... that's as far as I made it.
 |
| {Right before my vertical wall attempt. I looked so confident!} |
So maybe I
underestimated the difficulty of the vertical wall and
overestimated my athletic ability.
Maybe just a little.
After I straightened my legs and steped down
{yes, Trevor was right}, Alicia gave her best effort and made it half way up the wall.
Half way! She was
so close to finishing. But her fingers and hands were burning, too, and she decided to come down.
But we all made it up the slanted wall! Trevor and I faced our fear of heights together. We encouraged each other as we pushed ourselves off the tower and into the zip-line.
Flying down that zip-line felt
so good! It was like once you made it that far, you had conquered the course.
And if
we felt that good, I can only
imagine how the real campers feel, the ones who have some sort of illness or disability, the ones who have
boundaries and
limitations placed on their lives every single day. They must feel so accomplished, so
free.
And if Shell can help those kids feel like they're on top of the world...then I guess we'll let her stay for the rest of the summer ;)
~~~
*Please go to
camparanzazu.org to find out more about the camp and the children who attend. It is
truly an amazing place, and I am
so proud of my sister for the meaningful work she is doing there.
