It was a drizzly day and we weren’t even sure we would be able to participate in our trapeze.  Luckily, the SUN came out to play and we were swinging from the rafters in no time! The NYC FD Tribs had a great team of FD Alumni and One Newbie turn out for  our trapeze class at the Trapeze School of New York. The players wer: Star, Shark Bite, Rockstar Sissy, Star Man, Bollocks, Storm, Lucky Schelle and Sunshine.  Newbie, Maggie earned her nickname NAILING our trapeze class cirriculum and was poignantly name LISTA, by our trapeze coaches…who we, of course, also nicknamed by the way- big shout out to Powder, Snowflaker and Catcher (James, Kelly, and Travis) – they were AMAZING teachers and even better CHEERLEADERS.  We inspired them with our survivorship and they in turn inspired us to believe we would SURVIVE swinging 30 feet up in the air… and we DID!! We each swung from the bar, dismounted, learned to swing from our knees, and some even got the opportunity to be dismounted by Catcher full circus style!    Needless to say we all had an incredible day!    What a wild ride!  Everyone was jittery to start, and by the end of class folks were switching up the order to get another chance to try the cirrulcum.  Among our all stars was FD Alumni STAR, who, as it turned out had taken trapeze lessons before, she was hands down holding the “bar” high for the rest of the team!  No one wanted to go home without giving it their best try.  It’s events like this that remind us we are ALIVE…that we have not just looked cancer in the face and said, I GOT THIS, we are THRIVING!!!  First Descents offers opportunities to remind us that we have a lot of life to live and if we choose to, we can do it with STRENGTH, COURAGE AND FEROCITY!

– Sunshine