Sitka or Bust: Commute The World

3…2…1…Commit

The words had to be shouted, like out loud, and in front of my campers so you wouldn’t back down from the challenge. Basically, I was standing on top of a telephone pole-style log that lifted me twenty feet in the air and about nineteen feet beyond my comfort level. I then had to jump off that pole and try to catch a hanging trapeze which symbolized my life goal. Of course, I was last to go and had captured the attention of all my campers and my co-counselors. After cheering everyone on through fits of terror or hysterical laughter, it was my turn to climb the ladder that led to the staples that led to the fateful step onto a log surrounded only by air.

It didn’t help that I’d already been holding my pee for about an hour at this point. If anyone was going to whiz themselves, it was me. Once again, peer pressure had made me crumble. At least this time was for educational purposes. I couldn’t give up or my campers would get the wrong idea about how to approach life. Screw it. I screamed the countdown, plunged my legs against their shaky ankle counterparts and threw myself into pure trust.

My hands were shaky. I just really wanted to hold that rope tightly against my body, but they told me to drop it. I was momentarily airborne as my arms stretched out for that trapeze and my harness went slack. Then my palms brushed onto that metal trapeze and I knew I’d actually jumped. And then… I felt the metal slip through my clammy hands as I fell face-first towards the ground.

I might have screamed. Not sure, really. All I know was a glimpse of the angriest mulch waiting for me at the bottom of my descent. Mulch can hold grudges. Instantly, the slack was pulled tight and I swung back against the pole. Once, twice, then ground. I did not piss myself. Well, maybe a bit. Whatevs. If you can’t pee yourself a bit around friends, then where else are you supposed to let loose?