You know that elation you get when you master a new skill, or something you’ve been working at finally all comes together? That is the cloud I’m walking on right now.
I trapeze. Yes, really.
Every Monday after work I stick on my “oh my god, please don’t look at my thighs” leggings and sidle out of the bathrooms and into the circus space. Surrounded by ridiculously bendy size 6 girls and twelve-packed boys, I attempt to heave myself onto the trapeze. For an hour I puff and grunt. I fall off. I yell at my trainer because I’m frustrated or tired. I usually fall off again. I get “circus bruises” (which means bruises in places you never thought possible). I wake up the next day “growing wings” – excruciating pain in in my upper back.
And yet I love my swinging. It’s an adrenaline rush standing on the bar, and doing upside down tricks. But I don’t exactly rock at it. I suck. But I do laugh a lot and I have fun (in between the pain).
Today it all came together. I lifted my feet from the ground, to over me and above the bar, and swung my legs over so I was hanging upside down, without my feet touching the bar once. Doesn’t sound like much but OH MY GOD. I made everyone below give me high fives, I was so excited. And then to top it off I managed to do a trick that I’ve never succeeded at – standing up (it’s quite high up there), holding the ropes, and then doing a somersault in mid air, landing with my butt on the bar. It’s absolutely petrifying being so high up and you just lunge, with no idea where you are going and if there’s a bar anywhere near you to land on, or if you’re going to fall off (again) onto the mats below.
Today, I did it! I’m walking on air, I’m smiling at strangers, I’m calling all my friends and making them congratulate me.
Sometimes it’s the small things that can turn your world around.
