I used to be the person to get anxious about things that never ended up happening. Probably like you, I like to know what’s coming, especially when it comes to my safety. If there’s even the smallest chance something could go wrong, I’ve imagined it every way possible. For a long time I told myself that made me prepared, responsible, and mature. This changed for me in 2024 when I was at a volleyball tourament in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
Before my tournament, earlier in the week, I was at Disney World with my family. For most people, Disney is magical. It’s the “American Dream.” Disney for me was a week-long safety inspection. Every ride I got on, I was constantly scanning for problems. I pulled down on safety bars, and then pulled again. I watched the ride until I got on, trying to see if any bolts flew out. And even after all of that, nothing happened, every single ride was just fine. I thought the worrying protected me, until that weekend when I was in Gatlinurg for volleyball.
After a long day of games, my teammates and I wanted to go to Ober Mountain, a tourist attraction in town with all sorts of activities. This wasn’t scary to me, Ober Mountain was nothing compared to Disney World.
My teammates and I went up the mountain to do some activities. Half of my team went to the indoor ice skating, and the other half went on the mountain coaster (me included). I waited in line with half of my team for about an hour, not thinking that anything could go wrong. I finally get to the front, I get into my cart and begin rolling along the metal tracks.
For the first few minutes, the coaster slowly pulled me uphill. The track latched onto my cart and carried it uphill, meaning I had no control of the speed. I didn’t mind, I was distracted by how peaceful everything looked. The trees, the air, and the quiet.
Then I saw it. Something black and furry moved along the right side of the track ahead of me. Then it turned around. It was a bear, looking straight at me. I didn’t think, I reacted. I unbuckled my seat belt, and I jumped nearly 9 feet off the coaster, and began running down the mountain.
Adrenaline completely took me over, I didn’t realize how steep it was and I knew I just needed to run. I tripped over a rock and tumbled all the way down the slope, rocks and branches cutting my arms, legs, and feet. When I got to the bottom and stood up, I was absolutely terrified. I saw blood all over my body but I couldn’t feel a thing. That’s when I learned a very important lesson.
All week, I was worried about being scared at Disney and nothing bad happened. But the moment I stopped worrying, and I was calm, distracted, and completely unafraid, something truly unexpected happened to me instead.
That’s what stuck with me. My experience changed how I think every single day. We spend so much time stressing over things that might happen: tests, plans, conversations, and the future. These are things that we think if we worry enough about, we can somehow control the outcome. But when I got up after tumbling down that mountain, I realized that worry never warned me, protected me, or prepared me. The only thing that it ever does is steal the moment that you’re living in. Life is unpredictable, and the hardest moments come when you least expect them, but when they do, you handle them. So instead of living in constant fear tomorrow, I try to be present today, because worrying doesn’t stop life from happening, it only keeps you from living it fully.