Floodgates open? Check.

A small shift has happened since May 1st, which just happened to be the day we landed in Costa Rica. Sometime since that day, I gained a pair of balls. I don't mean this in a real physical way, of course. I mean this metaphorically, never mind the fact that the expression is a bit misogynistic.

I really pushed my boundaries in Costa Rica. I went zip-lining, which involved getting tethered to a steel cable and pushed off a metal platform into a precipice some 600 feet above the tree canopy. I did this not just one, but seven times. I reached speeds of 35 MPH as I cruised along zip-lines more than a half-mile long, which, in case you were wondering, IS long enough to ponder what would happen if your harness broke. I was terrified, and I loved it.

Me, pre-May 1st:
I don't really ride roller coasters. I don't like to fly (though I am fascinated with aviation). And I definitely don't understand why people would jump out of a perfectly good airplane with just a little parachute attached to their back.

Me, current day:
Maybe I'll ride a big coaster next time we go to an amusement park - don't knock it 'til you've tried it! Flying on that 20-seat puddle jumper in Costa Rica was so cool and bumpy, the turbulence on our jet ride home barely phased me. The flights were fun. I still don't want to jump out of an airplane, but I get why people do it.

See? I think I may have been bit by the adrenaline bug.

My mom and my sister are notorious wimps. So vocal are they in their wimpiness that it rubs off on the impressionable people around them. Notably, me. I think of how many years I wasted nursing THEIR fears. Why?

When I stood there, terrified, deciding if I wanted to pull up and let the guide push me across that precipice in Costa Rica, I thought about why I was afraid. In an instant, I decided I needed to know for myself what my limits were. I looked at the guide and said: "Ready."

Apparently, I was ready. Ready to say goodbye to old, irrational fears. And ready to start living for myself.

And today, I drove a speedboat for the first time. In case you've never done so, driving on a crowded recreational lake on a weekend day with heavy winds is not the easiest introduction. But it was fun. I think I'll do that again. And who knows what else I'll do?