Make Life A Backflip

Let me give you a brief history of why the name of this article is called "Make Life A Backflip".

The art of contorting one's body is a phenomenon only explicable by God himself. Who in their right mind would ever want to flip into the unknown and ultimately risk breaking their back, neck or even over-rotating, hitting one's back of the head? The imagery of this scene residing in your mind is gruesome and horrifying I am sure. The adrenaline and escapades involved in doing such an act is incomprehensible unless you have done one yourself.

So now, imagine a tall, lanky and thin sophomore college kid who is extremely unaware of how to manipulate his body. Put that thought on steroids and intertwine the fear of death mixed with the above and you get the outcome of me.

In the summer of 2017, My friend Noah, Natalie and I went to a trampoline park in Madison Tennessee called "Jump Street". I was so ecstatic to go jumping with an ex Austin Peay State University Cheerleader(Natalie) who was determined to teach me and Noah how to do a backflip. Attempting a backflip on a trampoline is not only safer but helps catapult your body to fully rotate without as much effort. There were multiple methods to overcome the abyss, known as jumping backwards and landing on one's feet. After Natalie taught me and Noah a few moves to at least attempt to thrust our bodies into locomotion, it was time to test the real movement. It took Noah around 15 minutes to complete his first backflip and I applaud him for that. His ability wasn't the catalyst of his completion, instead, he overcame the fear of the "breakneck" circumstances that ultimately could have exuded from his flip. He fully committed to the flip and landed on his feet no problem. Then, there is me, constantly jumping straight onto my back and repeating over and over again just trying to conjure up some iota of courage. After 30 minutes(15 minutes after Noah's completion) Natalie and Noah went to go and play trampoline basketball while my futile mind wondered in the labyrinth of how to even start a backflip. I tried and tried and tried and tried and tried for another 15 minutes just to come up empty-handed every time. Finally, Noah and Natalie returned to see if I had made any progress, and unfortunately in my mind, it was time to give up and go enjoy the rest of my time there since I was just doing the same move over and over again. I then gave myself an ultimatum, if I don't at least try to flip and land this thing before I leave at least one time, I will have failed myself. As harsh as this sounds, I thought, "Nash, if your parents were at gunpoint right now and you don't land this thing, they will die. Nash, you have to do this, your parent's lives are stake right now." Two seconds later, I landed my first backflip and that taught me a profound lesson about life.

Above, you can see what overthinking and the fear of failure will do to your brain and body. Life was meant to be a risk-taking plate full of decisions that may decide our future. I am so thankful that the above opportunity presented itself, regardless if it took a few years off of my life(due to the intense stress). I was taught two lessons from this situation. First, if we constantly hold back from our potential, we hurt ourselves and the others who may benefit from our breakthrough moment. Secondly, being fully committed to the agenda you set for yourself gives you a 100% success rate. Success has two definitions: "the accomplishment of a task" and my own definition "learning from failure". If you didn't learn from your failure, that is truly a failure. Success comes from gaining a tangible or intangible skill making you more adept towards a goal etc.

Play the game for more than you can afford to lose… only then will you learn the game. – Winston Churchill

Have discernment taking a risk, use your brain.

Make life a backflip and stop holding back!

P.S. this still applies to me as well:)