I am not quite the adrenaline junkie I used to be. I say this as a woman who has skydived, bungee jumped, earned a blue belt in Tae Kwon Do and a brown belt in karate, mountain biked trails that had no business being called trails, and road her bike regularly alone on curvy mountain highways at dusk where the speed limit was 55 — and rarely honored. (Ok I probably wouldn’t do that anymore!) For nearly three decades, I’ve been backpacking all over the world in conditions most people would politely decline.
So when I say I’m not quite the adrenaline junkie I used to be, understand that the bar was astronomically high.

But here I was on vacation — my first real one in years — and I’d spent most of it buried in work. Finishing a book draft, launching a trek, staring at a screen until my eyes begged for mercy. I had given myself exactly one day to do something purely, ridiculously fun.

So naturally, I chose 11 zipline runs over the lush jungle canopy of Hondurus.

And let me tell you something about myself that anyone who has ever stood next to me on a zipline platform already knows. I am THAT person. The one who screams and laughs and screams and laughs from the moment of launch to the moment of landing. Part nervous energy, mostly genuine, unbridled thrill. There is no cool, composed version of me sailing over a jungle. There is only the version that sounds like she’s being chased by Unicorns.

I come from a long history of saying yes to things that make my pulse do unreasonable things. I once took my mother skydiving for her 60th birthday. (She survived.) I also took her on her first overnight backpacking trip, where a freeze-dried Mountain House meal had its way with her, and she received a very intensive, very hands-on course in Leave No Trace Principle #3. If you know, you know. If you don’t — count your blessings.

Someone once told me my appetite for adrenaline was a childhood trauma response. Maybe so. But I prefer to think of it as my superpower. We only get one life. Why not make it the best ever?

And listen — I’m not saying you need to hurl yourself off a platform attached to a cable over a tropical jungle. But if the opportunity to step outside your comfort zone shows up at your door? Say yes. Say absolutely yes!
You might make some mistakes — Anyone knows I’ve made my share, and honestly, where would I even begin? — but I promise you’ll have a much better time than if you’d stayed home wondering what if…