Day 25 Indoor Rock Climbing
Day 25, wow this day had some psyche challenges going on at times I didn't expect. First of all, the day didn't go as planned. We were heading over to drop off our daughter to my sister-in-law's house and our tire popped. I'm just grateful it happened when we were driving on the street instead of the freeway. My husband was getting ready to change the tire to our spare when he saw there wasn't a car jack in our trunk! So I wasn't going to make it for the 10:30am class and had to delay it to 12:30pm. Since we didn't have the jack we needed to call AAA. Thank goodness for roadside assistance. Our technician was so nice and quick with our tire change. We went straight to get our replacement. By the time we got to Sam's Club for our tire change. It was closer to 11am. We were told it would take about 45 min to an hour. By the time everything was done it was 12:10pm and I had to call to delay to the 2:30pm class. Finally everything was settled and we were on our way to the gym.
Once we got there it was so cool looking. Just walls everywhere with rocks. LOL, I guess that's what you would expect from an indoor rock climbing gym, right? Another thing I noticed was the fact I was the most out of shape person in that gym. Everyone else looked fit, skinny, guys with their shirts off with no body fat. Yup that made me feel self conscious. I kept thinking, "will I be able to do this? Is there a reason fat people aren't in here?" Even though those fun thoughts were running around in my head as I was trying to catch them to shut them down, I got the harness and shoes on and headed over to the wall with the instructor. She taught me the necessary safety checks, demonstrated rock climbing, and belaying. When she climbed all the way up, that's when the nerves started hitting me. I didn't really understand why. I was excited to do this the whole time until that point. Nerves started to get to me. And here we are, it's my turn. My nerves are getting to me but I'm here, now or never! I choose now! Let's do this! I clipped myself in, did my safety checks, placed my hand on a rock, my other hand found another rock. I pulled myself up, found footing on the rocks below and kept going. I climbed up and just kept moving forward. I started feeling good, the excitement was coming back! YAY! I'm doing this I'm rock climbing! Then I got to the top. Oh shit! That's what I thought. I have to go back down. I didn't want to climb back down I really wanted to try to belay. But I wasn't just nervous anymore, I was scared, seriously scared. I could hear Mike telling me people were cheering me on. It didn't matter because I was freaking out. I thought I was going to stay stuck up there until I got so tired I would fall. I had to seriously talk to myself. Don't get me wrong outside encourage is needed and helps during those moments of self doubt. But ultimately, it's our inner voice that speaks the loudest to us. It's that inner voice that nobody can hear but you. It's that voice you need to get cheering for you and letting you know you CAN DO THIS! After all of that turmoil in my brain. I finally got the nerve to let go of the wall and trust that I can do this. Deep breath, one hand holding the belay another on the rock. One, two, three, let go of the rock, now. I did it! I let go and went down to the bottom. I did it! HELL YES! I was so proud of myself in that moment. I freaking did it. I wanted to keep climbing more, and realized how much fun this was. I really hope that this encourages you to do something new. Despite whether or not you don't fit the "norm" of what you want to try. Just do it. That's the beauty of life, you create it as you go.
Day 25 has been accomplished! (standing ovation with roaring applause goes on in my head)