MOUNTAINS + VISTAS
On New Years morning, I did something hard that I reaaaaaaallly didn’t want to do. I climbed a very large mountain, a mountain that I literally despise.
The last time I climbed this mountain, I was extremely out of shape, had no real goals for myself, and really was just a completely different person - it was so hard for me that I literally cried (LOL). So, you can imagine how traumatized I was in the moments leading up to another attempt of climbing this mountain years later.
The thing you have to understand about this specific mountain is that about halfway through, you’re not just walking up a path, you’re literally scaling steep walls of rocks for almost a mile (hence why as a non-hiker I despise this mountain!). As the hike got harder and more steep, my group and I began to separate with the understanding that we’d just go our own pace and meet at the top.
I was about 30-minutes in of climbing alone and arrived at the part of the mountain with the walls of major rocks, walls where as soon as you thought you were nearing the top, they just kept going. It felt so never-ending that I was starting to get discouraged, wondering why I had attempted to do this all over again.
I began to climb yet another wall of rocks when I instantly remembered something that my dad said to me years ago, something I knew I wrote down on my phone because I didn’t want to forget it. And that was this:
No one gets dropped at the top of the mountain. To build a great life, everyone has to climb.
The thing about climbing is that it accentuates the areas in need of growth. The muscles you don’t workout enough are screaming, your lungs are out of air and you feel like you can’t breathe, your mind is going crazy with thoughts of just wanting the pain and discomfort to be over. But there is no getting better without the climb. Without the climb, you aren’t able to build what you need to build to get to the top.
Because of what my dad said those years ago, my perspective was instantly shifted. The climb was still just as hard, it didn’t get any easier, but at the top I was able to give myself credit for not crying (!!!) and not being sore, I was able to appreciate the strangers I passed by that gave encouragement, I was able to be proud that this time around I’m a completely different person all together, all while still understanding the areas of growth that need to happen.
I am still in my climbing season and maybe in a sense I always will be. Are you in yours? Be proud of yourself for how far you’ve come, while also taking note of what you can keep improving on your climb.
No matter what, we’re in it together.
x LG Curry