The "Polar Bear" Plunge

The "Polar Bear" Plunge from Brandon James on Vimeo.

Looking out into the icy Lake Michigan boat harbor my heart dropped for a second. I could already feel the icy sting in my toes, the cold shortness of breath as the shock takes over. There's that moment before doing something you really don't want to do where your brain is complete moosh. The conversation in the car didn't really sink in as I thought of what was about to go down. The polar bear plunge is an excellent way to face pure fear, and to put yourself in a position of doing something no matter how much you want to back down. The car full of friends and the drive of my friend Alvin to go through with it were helpful in getting me into the water, but it's tough to say if I would be as scared as I was if I had to jump into that water out of necessity.

There is this bizarre desire to experience these feelings of life on the edge, I guess as a way to test how resilient we really are as humans, and to test how little there really is to be scared of. These experiences on the edge also ignite an animal instinct in us that is an addictive feeling, the state of mind where decisions are just made and you are experiencing the moment at its fullest. Despite the grueling pain of the cold, and the short fear that I would never regain the feeling in my toes, doing the plunge was a great way of connecting with that feeling that anything is possible. It also provided the general rush of panic after sprinting back to the heated SUV only to discover the door to be locked.