Ana Maria Soto is a sophomore communication major with a focus in strategic communications and a minor in psychology.
My family and I have been fortunate enough to cruise through the Caribbean each Thanksgiving — with the exception of 2019 — for the last seven years. On these vacations, I realized that I wasn’t as adventurous as I wanted to be. I would spend my days tanning, reading on the deck or on the beach when we were docked, but I wanted to try something different. When we docked in Roatan, Honduras, I decided to join my family with whatever they were planning for the day. I didn’t know it was ziplining until we were buying the tickets and signing the waivers in case of injury.
The ziplining excursion was made up of 16 lines that also included a portion at the end that let us play with monkeys, which I was most excited for. We hiked over a mile on the side of a rocky hill to reach the first line, and I didn’t realize how taxing it was to hike until that moment, especially while wearing vans. To say the least, it was not my proudest moment, my heels were on fire and I could feel the blisters forming. We got the harnesses on, were told how to hold the rope and were shown which kind of tricks we could do. My anxiety did not allow me to do any tricks for the first few lines. I was too scared of having a near-death experience, even if I knew the fear was irrational.
By the twelfth line, I felt freer and began to actually let loose. So, I decided to hang upside down. I felt like I was flying as the air breezed around me. This line was one of the longest, so I hung for longer than any other lines. When we finished, we headed down to play with the monkeys and I felt like I had truly lived. It was an indescribable feeling to truly allow myself to break free and enjoy something for one of the first times ever. I was not concerned with deadlines, finals or even society as I felt myself fly through the air. I was just me, smiling and laughing. The feeling of flying was my high of the day, but getting peed on by a monkey was a close second.
Every person on this planet deserves to feel the freedom and unconstrained joy that ziplining gave me. May everyone have an experience that truly makes them feel alive.
