My First Big Travel Yes

My feet sat bare pressed against a three foot long cold metal plank extending from "suicide bridge", 469 feet above a shallow stream of water in the middle of a tropical forest. My only safety was my ankles being attached to a 265 foot bungee cord.

I looked down, I see the water that I would crash into if there were any failures. All I could think about was the fact that in the past year there have been two accidents that both resulted in death.. Then I hear someone yell out "Are you going to jump?"

Let's rewind a bit as this is one of my big yes moments on my first big adventure. I had just started college, determined to reinvent myself. Be a person that's open minded and ready for anything. I was ready to say yes to new hobbies, sports, clubs, anything to break out of my comfort zone.

This mostly started small. I ended up handing out condoms at safe sex bingo for a campus event. That was about as fun as it sounds. I would see flyers on the wall that would result in me going to fencing clubs or free pizza announcements that lead to me joining a economics club. I wound up making friends with a widow when a local restaurant offered free meals for Thanksgiving in hopes of bringing the community together. I was involved in many activities some small and some as big as joining the Big Brothers Big Sisters program as a Big Brother, but then a email came through that I truly believe changed my life, an email that sparked a passion so strong that since receiving that email in 2013 I still am trying to find ways to feed this desire.

First semester of freshmen year I got an email on my phone as I was long boarding between classes. It was titled "Learn Spanish in Costa Rica". The email made note of a upcoming information session about studying abroad in Costa Rica. To this point, I have not really travelled but it was something I was interested in, old me would of said "oh no way I could do that: too expensive, i'm just a freshmen, that's for later, how could I take off work," any excuse I could think of. New me said yes.

I went to the information session, I was the only one that showed up because of the email. The host thought that was hilarious. I said yes, found a way to make it work, packed my bag, and left for Costa Rica to study for 6 months.

La Virgen - My home for 6 months

I studied in a rural small town in Costa Rica known as La Virgen, a group of us were making a trip to the capital for holiday when someone brought up the idea of bungee jumping while we were there. (It was me) I checked around and found a company that said they were the highest bungee jumping bridge in all the Americas, it was 3 times taller than the legal maximum height of bungee jumping in the States. These both turned out to not be true but I was bought in.

My group of friends and I were at the bridge where they were briefing us. They told us that this is the bridge where local people come to when they wanted to commit suicide, they told us that two people have died in the past year due to bungee jumping accidents but they assured us we would be safe. They asked do you still want to jump? Yes.

While I was on that plank, I was concerned that I have taken the saying yes too far and that this was not a good idea. I was running through the what ifs in my head, they were all tragic. When I heard the shout asking if I was going to jump without any further hesitation I jumped. My heart sunk to my stomach until the bungee cord shot me back up and the crew finally reeled me up. It was exhilarating.

This trip was my first country I went to as an adult, the combination of wandering through a new country and the thrill of my bungee jumping adventure resulted in a complete shift of my priorities. I had to chase this feeling. I'm still chasing this feeling, all because of an email.