Fearless in Antigua . . .

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I've been fighting a bit of funk the last few days. Feeling a bit homesick. Familiar fraustrations with work are back. I've doubted if I'll ever feel comfortable in the social world of this ship. I've been questionning my decision to cruise again, knowing my last experience won't be this experience and maybe it just won't be as good. But I spent some time remembering the reasons I chose to come back and recognizing the things I have power to control here. And I'm acting on that and focusing on that.

The gym on the Destiny is fantastic. They recently got all brand-new equipment. I've also found a quiet place that's outside and low-traffic to practice yoga. These things are good and I'm working at developing a routine for myself that includes both. I'm still trying to figure out a proper sleep schedule - but when I finish work at 1am, attempt to socialize and do Destination Shopping promotions first thing in the morning, it's challenging to get a solid night's sleep without sleeping an entire port day away. I slept away a few port days this week. But I'll get that figured out.

Today was good though cause I went on tour: the Rainforest Canopy Adventure. Yes, I went zip-lining again!

We had about a half hour taxi ride from the pier. We drove past large luxury homes, through tiny villages, past schools and road side shops and eventually snaked our way up and down hills into the rainforest. Touring, this is what I love about this job, getting to just drive around and see the countries my little ship village pulls up to each morning.

The zip-lining course had 9 different lines. The first few were small, but then they were bigger and right over the canopy. The biggest was 300 feet above ground and 300 feet long. Zipping across there, looking out at the lush-covered mountains was gorgeous. After the zip-lines, there was the "leap of faith" where you step off the platform, drop slightly and then are lowered the rest of the way by a balay line. Then there was a series of about a dozen high-ropes challenges: double wire walks, multi-vine plank walks, rope bridges, etc. They were exactly the sort of high-rope challenges I used to balay student groups for at YLCC, with a few different ones thrown in. At YLCC, I always stayed safely on the ground, balaying hundreds of students each week and too scared to ever get up there myself. But I did the whole course, the zips, even the leap of faith and enjoyed the entire thing. Beyond a brief flicker of fear before stepping off the platform for the leap of faith, I was fear free. And it felt so good to just enjoy it!

The people I was touring with would occasionally ponder aspects of the equipment or course aloud and I often knew the answers. I was called a "professional" and an "expert" at this stuff and I was quite entertained by that.

So I'm feeling better now that I'm out and doing things. And I have plans for the next few port days too, so that should help. And it means more stories will be coming . . .

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Comments

[Swillett]

Only thing to do is jump over the moon!
"The only way out is up, Elsey whispered to me... A leap of faith"