Spokane barista keeps depression at bay by facing fears, and the bulls in Pamploma

Not many eighth-graders have bucket lists and if they do, they often involve meeting a rock star, movie idol or sports icon.

But when Elliott Browning, 22, was in eighth grade, he added the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, to his bucket list.

“It sounded crazy,” he said. “It sounded like good clean fun.”

Last month, Browning spent a week in Spain and checked the event off his list.

“My best friend since first grade went with me,” he said. “He was the only friend willing to go.”

The event is the most famous part of a weeklong festival honoring St. Fermin, Pamplona’s first bishop and patron saint.

Browning, a barista at Revel 77 on the South Hill, ran four times. He’d planned to run five, but a close encounter with a bull necessitated a day of rest.

“I wanted to touch a bull,” he said. “The goal is to slap a bull and run away, but you can’t touch the bull’s horns or tail – that’s disrespectful. I saw a guy get tossed in the air right next to me. It was really scary.”

While scenes of the bulls running down the crowded streets of Pamplona look frightening enough, Browning said what comes next is wilder.

“The bulls run into an arena, and the stands are filled with people. That’s where things get real crazy – they let more bulls into the arena. On my third run, I went to slap a bull, and I got very humbled. He turned his head and laid me out. I had a massive bruise on my chest for a week.”

But after a day off, Browning was ready for more.

“The Spaniards are wild,” said Browning. “They lay down in front of the chutes where the bulls come out in the arena, so we did too. Seeing a bull jump over me was one of the coolest things. I had this ethereal moment of watching myself do something I’ve wanted to do since eighth grade.”

Browning is no stranger to danger. On his 18th birthday, he jumped out of a plane.

“I went sky diving. It was the first time I’d been in a plane.”

He also bungee jumps off bridges on a regular basis. The reason he pushes himself to do challenging things stems from childhood.

“I’ve struggled with depression since I was 10 years old,” Browning said. “A lot of men deal with mental health issues in silence, or they drink it away.”

That style of coping wasn’t for him.

“I’m deeply religious. I realized at a young age, I wasn’t going to be a partier or pursue drugs or alcohol,” he said. “I wanted to live a sober lifestyle and make sure the things I do have meaning.”

So, he pushes himself to do things that scare him.

“I don’t like it when people value their daydreams more than their reality,” he said. “There’s an important aspect of going into the unknown and taking a leap of faith.”

While Browning’s leaps are literal (a 300-foot bungee jump from a bridge), he sees the results in his daily life. He calls it “leaning into the flinch.”

“Those leaps allow me to grow a thicker skin when life throws storms at me,” he said. “It gives me a sense of confidence.”

A quote from Theodore Roosevelt is part of Browning’s philosophy: “… If he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

So, he will continue to face his fears and skydive and bungee jump and he’s already planning to return to Pamplona to run again with the bulls.

“It’s like a reset for my mental health,” said Browning. “I want to let good things run wild and live in an intentional manner.”