Surrounded by a group of people around my age, i find myself challenging against my comfort zone and stepping into the unknown of my stretch zone. Today i will go on a chain walk, which entails a mile lentgh walk among jagged rocks along a coast in eastern Scotland, the chains, attached to the wall for extra support, in-case of bad conditions and a secure safety net. Without the chains and the people surrounding me i would not have even dared embark on such an experience. A race against the tide began as we trudged through the sand towards the start of the chain walk.

Taking a deep breath i pull myself up onto the first bit of rock at the side of the cliff side, and look ahead at the never ending path ahead, i already at this point spotted some potential areas, where i may crack and give into my cowardice ways, retreating back.

Luckily with the encouragement and many hands that helped me across my first difficult hurdle, i grew more confident in myself and my companions, of a safe completion of this journey.

So we continued on our journey against the tide that was edging closer towards us. We progressed onward to a particular difficult part, where i would now have to take on my biggest fear head on. Heights. That dreaded feeling you get in the pit of your stomach, as you look down over the edge, your body somehow edging closer to the edge making you feel like you could slip at any moment. The worst part was not only the height itself, but the fact all we had to climb down with was, foot holes, no rope, no harness just foot holes, very comforting. At this point it took me a while to deliberate wither i would quit now or just face my fear and do what had to be done.

After a moment or two i finally decided upon a course of action, carefully stepping towards the edge and taking my first step to over coming my fear of heights.

I was surprised by how easy it was after a while, it amazed me when my foot reached the bottom, no scratches, no head injuries, i was safe and ecstatic by my progress. Never could i have anticipated how far i had come to this point. Once we finally reached the end of our whirlwind adventure, some of us waited behind and looked at how far we came. The disappointing part was that we had lost our camera along the way, losing all the pictures we had taken of our finest moments, because each individual accomplished something on this very fine day. Something that was privately important to us, like our own personal goal. When we were on our way back in the minibus, we all named one thing we had over come that day. Heights, fear of water, fear of drowning, fears of being left behind. We had truly all worked as a team, helping each other when needed, not leaving anyone behind and in amongst all the fear we had fun too, and that is the most important thing i have learned today, to be able to have fun whilst facing your fears is a gratifying feeling that i will never forget for as long as i live.

Take chances in life, chances that could make or break you
do something extraordinary
something you wouldn’t normally do, it helps build your self esteem and your confidence, my advice is do not try it on your own, have at least one person with you, a person you would trust with your life. It is always better to have someone to help you along your journey to facing up to your fears. I now do more things i never thought i could, i go sky diving, skiing, snowboarding and rock climbing. So in my opinion there is not a hurdle in life that you cannot overcome, so get out there and live your life to the full and never let anyone or anything stop you from playing the game.