Id seen clips of New Zealand in a TV show, and it looked beautiful. So I persuaded two friends to take a couple of weeks off to get away with me. In February 2015, I left Charlotte, North Carolina, and went on an adventure.
A week into the trip, while hiking in Abel Tasman National Park, I met a traveler who told me about the Queenstown Nevis Bungy: a 440-foot fall, the longest in the country. I went for it.
But when I got up to the platform, nerves set in. A mantra popped into my head: Take the leap and trust that the universe will catch you. I repeated the words until I gained the courage to jump. To my surprise, I didnt feel a sense of dread during the fall. I had faced my fear and plummeted into the unknown.
When I got home from the New Zealand vacation a week later, I returned to work and couldnt help thinking that my bungee move was a metaphor for my life. I did not want to do this job anymore; there was more for me out there. I saved my money so I could quit and travel by myself for a year.
The biggest takeaway from that extended excursion was how open people were with me, when I was so used to feeling isolated. On a bus trip in Germany, I realized I hadnt packed food. The man next to me gave me a sandwich, a pretzel roll, and water. He also translated for me. Those small acts made a major impression.
I returned home in July 2017, knowing I wanted a career that channeled this desire for community. In November 2018 I launched BackGetters , a company that sells womens and mens shirts with compassionate messages (think: You are loved and You are enough).
A quick, powerful line helps me eliminate the voice that spews self-doubt in difficult situations, like when I went bungee-jumping. Now my hope is that the messages on the shirts act as reminders that you matter and that you can trust yourself and take risks.
Thanks to this new career path, my mind and body feel better. This journey gives me a purpose. Several times, customers have shared that theyve been approached by a stranger while wearing one of the shirts, and the person has smiled and said the message out loud to them in passing. Who knowssomeday, one of my T-shirts may be the nudge that someone else needs to take a leap and change their life.
This article originally appeared in the October 2019 issue of Women's Health.