New Heights
The Mall of America, being around a twenty minute drive from many of us who live in the twin cities, can almost be considered our local mall. It attracts thousands of tourists every year and MOA is always trying to build bigger and better attractions. I have been to the mall plenty of times but yesterday my friend Lucy, her younger sister Tara, and I we went there to try and find something foreign to us. We wanted to do something we have never done before at this mall that we usually only shop at. After sneaking Tara past the security guards with Lucy’s old license, we found exactly what we were looking for.
Sixty five feet in the air a young boy leaned over a plank like Rose in Titanic. Below him were four levels of rope courses. Everyone on it was harnessed up and attached to the metal structure. Their facial expressions ranged from ‘This is a little scary.’ to ‘This is awesome!’ to ‘I’m going to puke.’ and to ‘I just puked!’. Everyone was smiling though once they touched the ground again. We stood in line for thirty minutes. We were more bored then scared by the time it was our turn to put the harnesses on. The personnel attached us to the course and we climbed to the first level. It was around this time something in my mind clicked. I am afraid of heights!
I knew I was afraid of heights because I always have been. When I was seven my school had a carnival. I went on the Ferris wheel and cried the whole time because we were so high in the air. When we moved to Minnesota I refused to go on any of the Valley Fair roller coasters that went more the 20 feet in the air. In eighth grade, this fear developed into something new though. Going back to Valley Fair on a field trip with all my friends I did not want to be the scaredy-cat so I went on the power tower. I made it out alive with the help of a death grip on the handles and screaming at the top of my lungs. As the day went on I began to enjoy this rush of adrenalin I felt whenever I was high in the air. Although I was afraid, I was enjoying it!
Every level we went up got scarier. My hands ached from holding onto the rope so hard. When we reached the fourth level my mouth was dry and no taste. Tara kept encouraging me as I stepped out onto the single rope that you must walk across to get to the plank where we had seen the boy before. When I made it across I felt proud. My heart was pounding, my legs were shaking, and I had a nervous smile as I took the five steps out to the edge of the plank.
Being only a few feet from the ceiling, I reined over the park. All the way up there I literally saw the world from a different point of view. People were so tiny! I could see everyone and what they were doing; oblivious that someone else was watching their actions. The lights and sounds of the park were terrific. The lights blinked and shined and flashed like paparazzi’s cameras. I was able to zone in on different sounds: children laughing and screaming on the rides, music from the speakers, a roller coasters wheels against the metal as it rolled by, and all around happiness. In this location I felt the rope course shake under my feet but I felt bigger then this huge place. I not only was at the highest point but I had worked through a trilling fear to get there.
I wasn’t quite sure how I would make it down as I was frozen with fear. But, the second time on the levels was less scary then the one before and my fear slowly began to subsided. (Of course my hands relentlessly still gripped my rope.) Although I am no adrenalin junky it is fun to do something exciting like this once in a while. It can be electrifying to engage in your fears and try something new.
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