Making Life Happen in Three Easy Steps

by Kat Lopez (United States of America)

I didn't expect to find USA

Making Life Happen in Three Easy Steps If you ever want someone to question your sanity, or get the unsolicited opinion of if anyone would ever jump off a bridge while seeing their eyes widen larger than they probably should, tell people your plans to go bungee jumping for your birthday. It’s the prompt for an immediate “You’re crazy. oh, I would never do that!” Well I would. And I was going to. Driving up those mountains in the dusk’s fog was just eerie enough to build my own level of suspense. As I arrived at the meeting spot to check-in, I was surrounded by strangers with backpacks, smiles on their faces, and fidgets that could only be a result of the nervousness flowing through all of us. “How many?” the friendly bungee branded beanie-wearing staff members asked. “Just one,” I replied. It’s as if I had just told them I was a rockstar going on tour and giving them free tickets. Their reaction was “wow, that’s so awesome!” Is bungee jumping alone not a common habit? I didn’t care- this was my adventure and I was ecstatic to be doing something from my Life List. (You can’t control the “bucket” but you can control your life.) The journey up to the “Bridge to Nowhere” (yes, that was the company’s mysterious name) was a 5-mile trek through Azusa Canyon. As I linked hands with strangers through 4 ft river crossings my heart started to beat faster and faster in anticipation of what was at the top of this climb. After multiple hours I suddenly lift my head from their focus on my hiking boots’ activity and see THE BRIDGE. Next was our official “bungee school,” which essentially was all of us sitting on the concrete bridge floor staring up at the instructors as if we were kindergartners hanging on every word of our teacher during storytime. The first instructor comes up and after welcoming us to the adventure says, “all you need to do is remember three things during this. 1. Look at the red target on the rocks across from the bridge. Keep your eyes there. 2. Don’t hold onto your harness, the bridge, your clothes. Let go of everything and keep your hands open and free. Lastly, take a huge leap and GO BIG towards that target.” The next instructor comes up and says the EXACT same thing. I’m mentally taking notes and thinking- “that’s it? That’s all I need to know? They are all just repeating the same instructions, surely there is something I’m missing. The next thing I know, I am in a harness, straddling the bridge rail.   I just kept repeating those instructions in my head. Next, in the voices of my new friends, came the chant, “3, 2, 1….BUNGEE!” I jumped… and I loved it. There is something so liberating about dangling from stretchy cords looking up into the sky. As they pulled me up I could feel my whole body shaking in excitement. It’s as if my heart was going to jump out of my chest. I don’t know if it was the adrenaline or the love I had for the experience.   As I went down that mountain in the sunset I was struck, struck by how brilliant those instructions were. For they weren’t outlining how to do well in this activity. Not at all. They were providing a simple roadmap for me and others to apply in our own lives. Society overcomplicates how we all must live and achieve a fulfilling life. For it is very simple. All we need to do is: 1. Set goals and stare them down. 2. Let go of negative self-talk, insecurities, the past, Andy restrictions holding us back. And most important- 3. GO FOR IT! For if we approach our everyday life with such a concise, yet effective objective, I feel that we, too, could love the experiences that we have. After all, we only have one life, we might as well be proactive in making it happen.