Keep My Feet Firmly Planted

Today’s Bloganuary prompt is “What’s the thing you’re most scared to do? What would it take to get you to do it?”

When I was about eight, I was taking swimming lessons. The final requirement was to jump off the high dive, something that made my eyes grow wide with fear. I tried to get out of it, but there was no way they were going to let me off the hook. So I climbed the ladder to the top, crying the whole way.

When I reached the diving board, I walked to the edge, looked down, and froze. I stood there for an eternity until a very kind high school boy walked out to meet me and told me he’d hold my hand as I jumped. That didn’t really allay my fears, but I knew I had no choice. So we jumped.

I’d like to say that leap into the deep end of the pool was exhilarating and made me want to race up and jump once more, but it wasn’t and didn’t. Instead, I never went back to that pool again.

These days I don’t think of the high dive when it comes to things I’m afraid of, although I doubt you could get me to climb up and jump. It’s sky diving that comes to mind. I can’t imagine what would get me to jump, unless it was to save my own life. However, I don’t see myself getting in a small plane equipped with sky diving gear to start with.

Fear of heights is really a fear of falling, I’m told, and that makes sense. After 9/11, I had frequent nightmares that I was on top of one of the twin towers and had to jump. I always woke up at the point I realized I was going to die. It makes me think about those for whom that jump became a terrible reality. I already knew I could never work in high rise, but that tragedy reinforced my belief.

I don’t even think I could go up in a hot air balloon. I’d be on the floor of the “basket” the whole time. What are the other high-in-the-sky sports? Don’t even mention them to me. A friend of mine dated a pilot for a time. and he took us up in his small plane. I wasn’t much fun on that excursion.

Yes, fear of falling is the thing I’m most scared of, and you’re not going to get me that high off the ground without knocking me out cold. And that’s that.

Image Credits: Gliding © Sergei–stock.adobe.com; High Dive © Maggie–stock.adobe.com