Before the plunge.

Have you ever been to a lake or quarry to jump off the rocks into the water?

It can be one of the most exhilarating things. You're fifteen feet above the water. Maybe you've done it before, or maybe it's your first time. It might take a little bit of convincing yourself, or maybe you're able to just ignore your inclination to not hurl yourself off high places for a split-second. Either way, you take a few steps, and leap into the air.

It's this moment I want to focus on. It's this moment that I think we can relate to a million things. It's the moment where you put away your notes before a test.  It's the moment after you ask a girl out, waiting to hear what she says. It's the moment when you move to a new place, unsure of what it holds for you. It's the moment before you play your first notes, or say your first lines, right after the stage lights come on.

It's a moment a vulnerability. At this point, you can't turn back. There's no deciding that now it looks like it's too high up. You're stuck in the air, just waiting for gravity to do its thing.

What's worse, sometimes, is that you don't know what's coming. Sure, you've been in water before, but today it could be completely different. It could feel great, or it could be freezing cold. Maybe a tree fell in the last storm, and it's hiding right where you'll land. But all you can do is brace yourself.

The whole time, these thoughts rush through your head. The sudden reevaluation of what you're doing. The debate of how it's going to turn out. And the funny thing is, it feels like it lasts forever. Seconds feel like minutes, and hours feels like days.

Then you break the surface. Everything can seem exactly how you expected and completely different at the same time. And that so important moment of contemplation that seemed to drag on becomes fleeting, almost to the point you could doubt it even existed.

Then, finally, you're body is fully submerged, and you realize that you can't wait for gravity now. You've got to start swimming or you'll drown. You're not just bracing for impact while you let life take you where it will anymore. You're actively moving yourself somewhere new.

Then, at some point, you'll jump again.

Have you had a 'before the plunge' moment recently? What was it?