Personal Narrative: My Obstacles In My Life

I have experienced many obstacles in my life, but there’s that one obstacle that changed my life in a way I didn’t imagine. As a matter of fact I was not aware that such thing would present itself as an obstacle in my life but it did. In 2006 I joined the U.S. Army and was shipped off to Basic Combat Training. Just being there was a challenge on itself. During Basic Training we were taken to The Confidence Obstacle Course. At first I thought it was easy, run over logs, climb short walls, swing on ropes and a few other things that in reality were a lot of fun. And right before the end of the day the Drill Sergeants took us to the last obstacle. A 40 feet high tower with ropes going down to the ground and away from the tower. From the ground level it didn’t look that bad for me, but once I climbed on top and was told by my Drill Sergeant to slide down the rope head first I panicked. Until that day I was not aware of how afraid I was of heights. It took some time for me to gather the confidence I needed to slide down the rope and finally after some encouragement from my Drill Sergeant I did it. My fear of
heights wasn’t just an obstacle that I needed to overcome to get through an actual obstacle course; it was the door to a whole new world of confidence, excitement and adventure. As a result of this experience I gained a lot of confidence. So much that I wanted to reach for new heights every time I could. By the time my platoon went off to do the last obstacle course of Basic Training; a 60 feet high rappelling tower, I was not even close to afraid when I got to the top. I was actually looking forward to it. But this wasn’t enough for me. With every new height I reached the more confident I became. And I wanted more. So when I was done with Basic Training and went to Advance Individual Training I decided to sign up for Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia. Jumping out of a perfectly good plane was my next new height. So much was my confidence at this point that now I was doing things for the excitement of being somewhere high above the ground. And Airborne School gave me more than excitement. The practice towers were over one hundred feet in height. I was so exited of getting up the towers that I would always volunteer to be in the front of the line and I would try to do as many practice jumps as I could. By the time we went to finally jump off the plane I was so ready and exited. After a few minutes of flight we were finally over the Drop landing Zone. The Master Jump Instructor gave the commands to stand up and hook our lines and he proceeded to open the door of the plane. At that moment it hit me. I realize I was seconds away from jumping out a perfectly good plane and I felt a chill go down my spine but I was able to calm myself down quickly. After all this is what I wanted. Seconds later, there I was falling, ten thousand feet above the ground. Thereafter, getting the chance to get up high somewhere is an adventure.
I love to fly on planes but there’s nothing like flying with the Blue Angels. Going on a Fighter Jet forty thousand feet above the ground at Mach 1, was almost a life changing experience on itself. I’ve jumped out of planes multiple times but unfortunately I have not done a free fall jump, yet. A while back I was challenge by a friend to climb to the top of a water tower in South Korea near the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone, the border between North and South Korea). And I did. To my surprise it wasn’t been a couple of hundred feet off the ground just holding myself with my hands to the latter railing that made this such a good adventure, it was the chance to look into North Korea from such a high point that made the challenge so satisfying. But I still look for new heights and new
adventures. And without a doubt I overcame one of my biggest obstacles in my life, my fear of heights. And with as much confidence as I have, I do have a lot of respect for heights, just so that I can do it again and again. I hope in the near future to go in a new exciting adventure.