who said work couldnt be fun?

Usually, I would not put a post up here about work, but this was an unusual day. Today, we had a "team building" experience, where a group of us carpooled over the hill to Santa Cruz for a hard lesson on the ropes course. I had never done a "ropes course", and my idea of what it was, came striaght out of a survivor episode immunity challenge, where I thought we might have to climb a rope ladder in record time. Well, I did have to climb a ladder, and it did have ropes, but it was far from anything I had seen on survivor.


My first instinct was to say, forget it. Afterall, we were told to only participate what was most comfortable for us emotionally and physically. But, I then thought, I am not going to chicken out, especially in front of all of my peers. I figured if they were going to do it, I could too, whats the worst that could happen?
Well, after a practice go at the giant ladder, I learned that all of my preconceived notions about what looked hard, and who looked strong was all thrown off base. Some of my coworkers looked like body building firemen, who could lift up a person in the palm of their hand, I really thought would scamper up the ladder in record time.

I was dead wrong there. In fact, they had the hardest time getting up. And me, a more then robust gal, made it higher then some of the "strong" guys. Then there were the small, shorter, weak looking men and women, who made it the highest up out of the all of us. It was amazing what people can do, and you would never guess they could do it!


The same was my perception of the next challenge, to climb this tree (that kept getting smaller the higher up you went) to the very top using small staples that were driven into the tree, then balance on a little disk the size of a dinner plate, and jump off the tree to hit a ball suspended in the air. I thought I would be able to do this without any real problem. I was so wrong again. I scaled the tree with real no problem, until I got to the very top. I was able to sit on the small disk, (keep in mind that the tree was moving a slight bit) but the problem was getting my heavy *ss up and balancing to stand up. It's so easy for me to just go from a sitting position to a standing position when I am on the ground. But those very same physical moves, when done 30 feet in the air, become incredibly challenging. I was only able to squat on the disk, my legs were tired and shaking, and I coudn't get all the way up to stand. But, I was still proud I even made it to the top.
I encourage everyone, if given the chance to do something like this, definitely try it. You will surprise yourself in so many ways, and it gives you such a rush to first look at something that seems sooooooo impossible to do, and then exceed what you ever thought was possible.