Jumping into the Hurricane
There I was. Starring down at the possibility of death, hundreds of feet below me. It had been quite a night. I had survived a 200-foot free fall, a 95-foot nosedive, and had hit a top speed of 70 miles per hour. Gulp.
What in the world was I doing, you ask? Skydiving? Base-jumping? Hang-gliding?
Uh, well no not exactly.
You see, I was at this strange place called Six Flags. And as embarrassing as it might be to admit, I had only ridden a “real” roller coaster (apparently the Mine Train doesn’t count) once before. Before I knew it, I had ridden every single one of them (except the ninja, because it’s the ninja). Goliath, batman, the scorcher, daredevil, GA cyclone, scream machine, acrophobia, minder bender, and the rest. For a guy like me, it was quite a night.
So there I was at UGA Six Flags Night with my friends on a cool spring evening. It was 12:01am, the park was closing, and we were on the last ride of the night—Superman. As we taxied up the track, I started to realize that I actually loved roller coasters. Once I had gotten over the fear of falling out and dying, I was beginning to have a lot of fun.
It wasn’t always fun, though. We started out fairly easy with the Georgia Cyclone, but on the second ride of the night I was 200 feet above ground on Acrophobia, fearing early death from a heart attack. And then there was the fear of tumbling out of my seat on Daredevil—a straight down 95ft nosedive. Whee!
But as we ascended up the starting track on Superman, I had legitimately come to love roller coasters. They weren’t frightening anymore. I had grown from the tension. What was way out of my comfort zone three hours ago was now familiar and enjoyable.
The story above is nothing new. Everyone knows that stepping out of our comfort zones produces growth, whatever it might be. I’ve recently adopted a new motto I call “jump into the hurricane.” It’s a fancy way of saying, “get out of your comfort zone”. Hurricanes are situations that are intimidating, but will teach us and grow us.
A hurricane situation is characterized by the following:
1) It’s uncomfortable, but you know it’s where you need to be.
My senior year of high school, I punted on my school’s football team. I had enjoyed kicking as a hobby for a long time, and debated since the 8th grade whether or not to give it a shot. Each year when it came time to decide, I found myself falling back into my comfort zone of baseball, a sport I had played since I was six. As senior year quickly approached, I knew it was do or die. I finally decided to take the plunge, knowing that I would look back on high school with disappointment if I never tried. It was a completely new and often intimidating experience, but I knew it was exactly where I needed to be. It turned out to be one of best decisions I’ve ever made, and it became one of my favorite highlights of high school. Not just for my love of kicking and football, but for everything I learned in the process.
2) It requires intentional action in the face of uncertainty.
The opposite of being intentional is hoping that everything will simply work itself out. Jumping into the hurricane doesn’t happen on accident. Growth doesn’t happen by chance. It’s an intentional choice. I’ve never met someone who accomplished a goal or fulfilled an ambition by sitting around and hoping everything magically falls into place and works out. I wasn’t going to magically appear on a roller coaster. I had to make a choice to hop on board.
3) It’s a situation that you will grow from.
Hurricanes are where the growth lies. Whether it’s something as simple as roller coasters, or a crucial job interview, hurricane situations grow us in the process, regardless of success or failure. Success is great, but learning from failure can be just as important and beneficial. Several years ago, I had the opportunity to speak to 200 of my peers at a church event. Midway through my talk, I got my notecard talking points mixed up and froze on stage in dead silence for almost thirty seconds, frantically trying to find my missing card. It was quite embarrassing, as you can imagine, but I grew tremendously from the experience. I learned the importance of preparation, and my passion for speaking has only grown from the experience. Though freezing up in front of 200 of your peers isn’t exactly ideal, I’m immensely thankful for the learning experience and growth that came out of it.
I think many of us would consider some of our best experiences to be the ones that were not always comfortable, but challenged us and grew us- the hurricanes we’ve sailed through. Those are often the moments we end up becoming most grateful for, regardless of whether we succeeded or fell flat on our face. What are some hurricane situations that you know you need to be in? Maybe you can start by going to Six Flags.
