He REALLY wanted to cross the rope bridge. We stood in the line for a few minutes, and he was excited the whole time… until the person in front of him went. At that point, he was much less excited… at that point he realized that he was next. It was going to take a few minutes though, because the boy in front of him was SLOW.
We talked… he told me he didn’t want to do it. I reminded him that he would only be 4 feet off the ground… and that there would be spotters walking with him the whole way. The boy in front of him had the spotter’s all but carrying him across the bridge at this point.
He bravely walked up to the base of the ladder… climbed it and stepped out onto the ropes. The spotters moved in. After his first step, he asked the spotters to back up a little and let him walk it. In what seemed an incredibly short time, he climbed down the other side.
Now he was ready to do it again. He was an expert… telling other boys in line what to expect and how to increase their performance. One trip across… Expert. I will say that the pointers he was giving were pretty good… They were the same ones I had given him just a few minutes before. ;^ )
What a difference a few minutes makes. He had completely forgotten the nerves and the trepidation. Now he was brimming with confidence.
I was (and I still am) a very proud Dad. He overcame his fear and reaped the reward of pushing his boundaries.
