ex(PR)essed

Many of you have heard about her, but I’m not sure how many have actually met Brave Girl Beth. She usually straps on her cape right before she talks on camera or mingles with a group of people she’s never met before. Well, last night she slowly but surely made an appearance at The Climbnasium in Mechanicsburg.

Jeff’s softball game was canceled due to the rain. We were both feeling antsy, so I agreed with his suggestion to go “bouldering” at the Climbnasium. References to rock climbing have peppered his vocabularly (and blog posts) lately, so I thought I better check out his latest fitness interest before we owned all the gear and were vacationing at large clilffs somewhere.

I felt so awkward and totally out of place at Climbnasium. It was awful. I stood with my arms folded watching people much thinner and more agile than me scale these seemingly impossible walls. Jeff gently nudged me and encouraged me to give it a try. I resisted. Multiple times. But, finally, when I thought no one was looking, I made an attempt to scale a small portion of the wall, and I made it!

I still spent much of the evening feeling hesitant and self-conscious, but I was proud of myself for even daring to try something new. That’s one of the great things about Jeff: he’s not afraid to try new things, and he’s not afraid to stumble while learning. I don’t like to fail…especially in front of people. I can now see how rock climbing would be good practice for problem-solving and for chipping away at my pride.

So, I’m not ready to buy all the gear. I’m not even really ready for a return trip to Climbnasium. But, I am ready to think about embarking on new adventures!