Expectations Weekend at High Africa

We spent this past weekend at High Africa, an adventure camp about an hour and half from where we are staying in Cape Town. (You can view pictures in the photo gallery on this page: http://www.highafrica.com/) It was a very nice weekend, and the location was beautiful. We stayed in cabins that looked out over a river, complete with mountains in the background. From the deck we could watch the sunrise, ever… so… slowly… And watch the sunrise I did, because the screech of the bed made sure that I awoke early each morning.

Besides all of the program-related lectures, we also did lots of team- and confidence-building activities. One of the highlights of the weekend was the high ropes course. I am aware of the fact that using a high ropes course as a metaphor for life is cliché. However, as you might have expected, I am going to make this comparison anyway.

Twelve meters off the ground, the ropes course was quite a fitting capstone for my past two months or so. Looking up at the course from the ground, it looked manageable, do-able. Climbing the stairs, it got progressively scarier, but still I went, reminding myself that all my fears were created by my mind, and my mind was the only thing working against me; this is the illusion of perspective. I was scared. Then, the wind picked up. And then I stepped down onto the log balance beam, shaking like a leaf. I could go into a lot more detail here, but it’s of little importance. What is more important than how scared I was is the greater lesson taken from this activity.

You see, life is a high ropes course. There are always unexpected challenges. But even when those unexpected challenges arise, you cannot let them distract you from your goal. Look at the challenge, assess it, and continue on your journey toward your goal. I did it, and it was a great feeling to complete that thing. And the accomplishment seemed all the greater because of all the fear that I had to overcome to get to that point. Would I do a high ropes course again? Yes, but only if I had to. But one thing I would definitely do again: keep journeying toward my goal even when the challenges arise. Make a decision and stick to it. Then, everything becomes less confusing. Suddenly, every challenge in life becomes an opportunity rather than an obstacle. Lastly, we can always achieve beyond our comfort zone, we just have to push ourselves outside that boundary. One is always capable of doing more than one believes oneself to be.