Living

During my three months abroad, I have crossed two things off of my bucket list.

Now, two is not a big number. But it is a bucket list. These are things people never do in their entire lives. I have gone years without crossing a single thing off. It’s April, I have crossed off two already, and by the end of the year I will have crossed off four.

Wow.

The first one was bungee jumping, something that a lot of people manage to get around to admittedly. So what made it special? Well first off, it was in New Zealand, where bungee jumping was born. Second off, the ledge was situated 400 meters above the lovely Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu. The sight alone was enough to take your breath away.

Now, up until that point I had no anxieties about jumping, I was only excited. So when the instructor asked if I wanted to peek over the edge before I jumped, I shrugged, thinking why not. I inched over til my toe lined up with the ledge, and I slowly leaned over, sure to keep my centre of gravity steady.

That’s when I began to get nervous. About a million feet below me were trees. And it no joke looked about a million feet away. My heart skipped a beat and I stepped back until my butt hit the railing. The instructor was smiling, standing near the edge with no fear. I will forever thank him for what he did next.

“Go on three okay? One…two…three!!”

Before I had time to really process that he was telling me it was time to fling myself off the side of a cliff, my brain made a decision. I remember my feet moving, and thinking only one thing. “Don’t think.” So I didn’t. I ran as hard as I could in the five steps it took to get to the edge, then I jumped. As I began my rocketing decent towards the earth, I will admit an involuntary scream did make its way out of my lungs and up my throat. I’ve never been so relieved as to when I was suddenly jerked back up towards the sky. I survived, what a relief.

Another involuntary scream broke free from my lungs, but it wasn’t from fear this time. It was thrill. I jut jumped off of a 400-meter ledge. I swung there for a little bit, taking in the view, the smell of the woods, the feeling of my heart pounding its way out of my chest. What a rush. I couldn’t wipe the smile off of my face for the rest of the day. Nothing like risking your life to really make you feel alive.

The second item I crossed off of my bucket list wasn’t necessarily a life threatening adventure, but it was easily one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I went to another world. Yeah, it’s a slight bit corny, but how about you scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef then tell me you felt like you merely dunked your head under the waves of the Pacific. Cause I’ll tell you right now, it felt like another planet.

I stood on the edge of the boat, gear all on, awkwardly trying to get a hang of the whole breathing situation, and staring into the waters below for a few minutes before it really hit me. It was when I was searching for Barry the barracuda that a little bit of fear crept up on me. How deep exactly was that water? And, uh, I know a lot of people already asked about sharks, but seriously, what about sharks?? That’s when a scuba diver broke the surface. He looked up at me, gesturing for me to jump. I looked on both sides of me, hoping he was talking to someone else. Sure enough it was only me standing there. I pretended to ignore him. No joke. That’s how much of a baby I was in that moment. All I could think about was jumping into that water and landing in the jaws of a very hungry shark.

My instructor appeared behind me, helping another scuba diver shuffle to the edge in their heavy awkward gear.

“You ready? Time to jump!”

I wondered at what point my in my life drove me to jumping off of so many things.

“C’mon, now. Just jump.” My instructor said light heartedly. I took a deep breath, which was more of a sigh really, shuffled up until my toes hung over the edge, and let myself fall.

I immediately began to sink. Which makes sense with how heavy all my gear was. Immediately my instructor appeared and led me over to a metal bar that hung off the back of the boat. I held on until everyone was in the water. We ran through the drills of getting water out of your mask, ect., and I honestly was having a hard time paying attention. I just wanted to dunk my head under the waves. I was so entranced with the movement of the ocean. With how vast it was. How blue. Eventually he deflated my belt and slowly I sank until we hung at a comfortable middle between the top and bottom. My heart blossomed as I took in my surroundings.

It’s understood that sound travels differently underwater. That alone made it such a crazy experience. Besides the sound of Darth Vader following you around because of your breathing apparatus, you’re pretty much left to your thoughts. As soon as I was under, I was blown away. And there was no coral in sight, just deep blue ocean in all directions. We began our swim and slowly but surely the coral materialized in front of my eyes. Fish of all colours mixed within the equally colourful reef, darting away if we got to close. If my breathing apparatus wouldn’t have fallen out of my mouth, I’m sure my jaw would have dropped. We were allegedly down there for about 30 minutes. I say allegedly because it felt like five minutes. I would have stayed down there for days if they had let me.

Later on, I snorkelled twice. Both times I found myself laying on my belly on top of the waves, letting my body go limp, and letting the ocean move me. As I lay there, staring at the world of colour right below me, feeling the life of the waves, I can say I was in absolute peace. Those few moments are the most beautiful, peaceful moments I have ever had in my life. The ocean has a funny way of making you feel tiny and larger than life all at once. I knew, in those moments, that I cannot ever stop. Stop travelling, stop learning, stop meeting new people, and doing new things. I cannot ever stop living.

Now, there are only a few days left in this chapter of my life. The third bucket list item-living in a foreign country. A country that is no longer foreign, as no country really ever is. It is home to many people. Australia will always be a home to me now.  Just because my time here is over doesn’t mean the experience necessarily ends. I will take the life lessons and time I have spent here close to my heart and in all my walks of life. Just time to turn the page and keep moving.

My next adventure, the fourth bucket list item, will be skydiving. Yes, I will continue to jump off of things. It appears to be a hidden passion of mine.

Here’s to living, adventures, and new chapters with respect to old ones. Here’s to life.