What’s a moment in your life that made you feel truly alive?
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Truly alive. I’m going to interpret “truly alive” as meaning a moment when I felt strong things, whether physically or emotionally and whether positive or negative. Actually, I think “truly alive” has a more positive connotation, so I’ll stick with that…sort of. I have a few moments that came to my mind immediately and one of them is definitely not positive physically. I’ll explain.
In no particular order, here are some “truly alive” moments:
Skydiving–Yes, I did throw up mid-air and yes, I did sprain my knees in the landing. But! The moment we tumbled out of the airplane and before we turned face down to the earth, I could see the plane getting farther and farther away from us. We were free-falling pretty fast and while it initally felt like that rollercoaster free fall feeling that made me scream bloody murder, my body quickly got used to that sensation. So we were able to keep free falling and I could actually enjoy it without constantly feeling like I was falling. After the parachute opened and I got nauseaous, the feeling definitely changed.
Concerts–Last year when I saw Katy Perry live, there was something powerful and intensely emotional singing along to the songs of hers that got me through a difficult transition in my life. And not just me singing, but singing along with an arena full of people was something magical. It was a similar experience at the concert I went to recently. Seeing TLC perform “No Scrubs” live, albeit with only one member of the group, was emotional. That song isn’t particularly meaningful on its own, but the core memory it brings up of singing along at the top of my lungs with a good friend of mine in high school when we would drive home from school every day. That was our song because it was just popular then and we liked it.
I’m looking forward to the Metallica concert next year for this same reason. I remember seeing the story about their performance at a college in Virginia and how the richter scale was able to record the moment the band started playing “Enter Sandman” from everybody jumping up and down and getting into it. I thought to myself that the band must never get tired of the crowd reaction when they start playing that song. And I’ll be there for it! I will be in the stadium when that song is played. I can’t wait!
Getting tattooed–This is the negative one, but it still makes me feel alive because good grief, there’s no other way to feel than alive when you’re in that much pain. Tattoos hurt regardless. But the artist who did all the pieces on my right arm–the ones that are crochet themed–he goes hard and deep! The outlining is fine, but when he gets to “coloring in”/shading, he’s like a kid gripping a crayon in his fist and scribbling as hard as he can. One of the most recent pieces he did had me questioning my life choices. It was all I could do to sit still through it. I broke out in sweats and essentially destroyed the paper lining on the chair from my feet moving back and forth, and well, all the sweat. It was rough. So, not a pleasant experience, but there was no question that I was “truly alive”. Kind of like when someone says to pinch them to prove they’re not dreaming.
These are the first three that came to mind. Life is not over though, so I am sure there will be more moments in the future. I can’t wait to see what they are.
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