Shortly after I posted the picture above, my high school physics teacher commented: “Be careful on ice….It has a very low coefficient of friction and the force of impacting solid H2O can ruin careers.” The warning seems obvious, and yet as humans we choose to ignore these warning signs and seek thrill in doing dangerous acts. In fact, once I had gotten comfortable on the ice, my gut was seeking about other risks that I might find trilling. Fortunately, the SA leading the program was a figure skater, and had planned to teach us some tricks, if we were up for the challenge. Since I was comfortable on two skates, I really enjoyed the challenge. I learned how to skate backwards, and even with one foot. And I enjoyed every moment of the challenge.

Why is it that human nature leads some of us to finding pleasure in taking risks and trill in challenges? For some reason I start to think of the affects of an adrenaline rush on other hormonal balances when I try to answer that question. But I’ll leave that discussion to the biologists.