When you tell young people up and down the country on a daily basis to spend more time stepping out of their comfort zone – when someone asks the question “should we do a bungee jump?” – it’s very hard to say no.
So months later, on the 9th July, the three of us find ourselves staring up at a 160 ft platform, considering how we can help students out of their comfort zones – watching each insane person at a time throw themselves off the top of a crane (somehow in silence), and flying through the air in the most impressive of directions. Needless to say, this was when the nerves truly began to kick in.
Facing your fears
We had some simple instructions to follow once we had gotten to the top… firstly, “don’t look down” – which inevitably led to us looking directly at the fate before us…secondly “Put your hands in front of you and jump head first” – which at the time felt like the most difficult task in the world. We’d gone from being in the comfort zone straight to making every excuse under the sun in the stretch zone – excuses as to why we couldn’t make that jump from the edge and at the moment of maximum fear, but eventually made it into the panic zone.
We were all varying degrees of nervousness: Mohamed, so excited he nearly jumped before he was meant to, Stevie: somewhat more nervous and myself (Tamara): ready to pass out with panic.
What united us was the piercing scream we all let out as we were shoved off the edge and plummeted downward. As you free fall from a great height, a rush of the most incredible emotions overtakes any kind of fear possible. The three of us left feeling accomplished, excited and with an even better appreciation for what the panic zone really feels like.
We’re now thinking about our next one, which might be twice as high. If you’re reading this, we dare you to go out there and do something that scares you…the hardest part is making that jump!?
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