On (Sort of) Conquering My Fear of Heights
I stood on top of the table because Scott and Justine are very mean and also very generous. The money will benefit Ashanet, firstbook, and Doctors without Borders.
I never want to do anything like that again as long as I live.
posted by John Green @ Monday, December 08, 2008
39 Comments
39 Comments:
Even if you never try that again, you DID stand on the table. Hurray! Every time you see that table you can think proud thoughts.
Way to go John!!
-Jenea
You're awesome, John. You stood up for acrophobics everywhere. Literally.
Willy is adorable as always. Has he met snow taller than him yet?
Way to go! You should capture and frame a still image from when you were standing on the table. Maybe make it a fridge magnet.
In other news, I believe that my Mr. Henry is Willy's identical twin.
Dude, your dog is ridiculously adorable. Go Team John!
I was always in doubt of the true extent of your nerdiness... and now I am absolutely sure that you are 100% nerd. Yay!
I think it takes great courage to broadcast your neuroses to the entire world. Good for you!!! And I love your choice of charities. Well done.
Congratulations on your tabletop performance! And way to go with the charities!
Also: Willy is so freaking cute. That shot of him trying to look over the deck wall? With his little tail waggling? Too cute!
Also, also: What is that paint color in your bedroom? So pretty.
Good for you!
I like that video because Willie's like Ollie...
Crikey, John you'd better invest the $49 in GoGetterJetSetter's cure--although successful in your table top conquest, that was about as pathetically shaky as Wall Street's commitment to do good with the $700 billion just given to it.
I'll put $20 towards your bill for shrink time and another $20 towards said charity of your choice, (and I hope others will chime in likewise--at least putting the money out for the charity) if you do it again, with a little bit more convincing...panache?!ooomph?!gusto?!whatever....
What say ye, nerdfighters?!
Well done, John. Sort of.
I now think we should have specified an amount of time you had to stand on the table. Like, say, a minute . . .
Justine
Congratulations, John. A huge step for phobics everywhere.
well done!!
Way to go John! But...you've vlogged from airports...aeroplanes are kind of...high in the sky? Why aren't you a shivering scared author on them?
congrats!
John, I commend you. To conquer your fear in an act which will benefit many is truly selfless.
And thank you for donating to Doctors Without Borders - it's a foundation close to my heart.
Obviously, you're not one to climb a ladder putting up Christmas lights... way to go, though. And for charity, too. What better reason?
Congratulations John, for standing on a table and conquering your fear in order to help those in need. That is truly one of the most awesome things any nerdfighter can do. WOOT!
-Molly
P.S. running through the snow with Willy was super adorable.
Well done, John. I knew you could do it.
So you probably have no interest in this since it's an incredibly scary thing to do, but a treatment for phobias is called immersion which basically means you immerse (duh lol) yourself in the thing you're afraid of. If you're afraid of spiders maybe you look at a spider in a little tank type thing and then with it outside of the tank and so on. The more you do it the less afraid of it you will become. I'm not saying repeatedly stand on a table, since that appeared to be severely terrifying, but start smaller. Something scary but not table scary, maybe a chair, and then work up to a table and then eventually looking out of windows on the second story, etc. etc. and eventually you'll be better able to cope with your fear. :-)
Congradulations, John! To overcome your fear (kind of) is wonderful. You must feel so great!
Could you maybe someday do me a favor, and act out the scene from Vertigo with the cane and the step ladder?
"I look up, I look down, I look up, I look down...."
In similar news, you're doing wonders for acrophobics everywhere by weaken the associations between the disease and the tragic obsessions with hauntingly beautiful suicidal blonde women with a fondness for bell towers that have so often accompanied its depiction in the popular media.
Wow! Congratulations John! Overcoming a fear is really hard to do--even if it is only kind of.
Okay, would you do it again for £1m to charity?
Because I know people with that sort of money... never say never!
Eee I just saw Anon's comment about immersion "If you're afraid of spiders maybe you look at a spider in a little tank type thing and then with it outside of the tank and so on."
No thank you. Spiders belong inside the tank, if not on the Planet of the Spiders (and NOWHERE ELSE).
I've been laughing for ten minutes. It hurts. That was fabulous. Do it again!!
None for the uncultured project?
Way to go John, you're a rock star!! I especially loved this:
John: I don't think I can do it... I literally can't do it.
Yeti: ... .... Get on the table.
That last part with Willie was soooo adorable!
Well done John.
I think that the actual best part of that video is how, at the very end, when you're running around in the back yard with Willie, the snow appears to demonstrate that this is something you have done before.
Stellar.
Good job, John! Yay! See, I wouldn't have been able to do anything like that, I think. I'm deathly afraid of two things (mainly): geese and fire. A goose tried to eat my toes when I was little and I've been terrified since. Like, NOBODY could pay me enough to hang out in a room full of angry geese and not scream my head off and run around like an idiot. Or to sit beside a lit candle for a long time and not freak out.
Way to be! We're so proud of you!
By the way, I love the color of your room. It looked really neat on camera.
Yeti for the win, "Just get on the table!"
That's so what I would have said.
Okay, so how much would it take to get you on a (dum dee dum dum)
CHAIR LIFT???
Awesome. And forget about standing there for a full minute. When you were getting on the table, I thought, if he stands up and gets his hands over his head, that's a win. Standing there for a full minute? Put that person in a vat of flaming hog fat and hand them a stopwatch.
The funny thing is that running in the snow is more dangerous than the table. I thought sure the video was going to end with you on your back and Willy giving you mouth to mouth.
Courage+humor=Hero
Doing it so the world can see--Let's just say, that was the act of a true Nerdfighter. Definitely awesome!
=D yay for the table performance!
and your dog is insanely cute <3
Okay, for serious, my capcha is 'typeyea'. So:
YEA! (which could be yeah, or could be yea, verrily, he stood.)
I recently discovered at the Melbourne Writer's festival that I am not so much scared of high as I am off narrow. I was on a narrow but not at all high podium (you know those big block things) and had space behind me, was terrified of, you know, walking and sitting and stuff, what with all the narrow. I also hate walking across pedestrian bridges.
(now it is time to typeyea)
er: of narrow. But it's the off bit that bothers me, so you can see how I made the freudian slip.
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