While Petrarch beat me to the punch on the mountain thing, I too have been entranced by the idea of climbing a mountain. I grew up in Farmington, Utah and not only did I live close to the mountains, but my friend who lived across the street had the mountain for his backyard. Since I was a young child, I loved playing with my friend on the mountain just above the house. To this day, there are few things I love more than a view from a good lookout.
One day, my friend and I decided that the age of 10, we were going to climb to the top of this mountain. Apparently there was a trail that lead to the top of this mountain but we didn't know that (our parents didn't know about our endeavor either). As we started hiking, it wasn't too bad, and our confidence was pretty high. However, as we got closer to the top, we began to have a harder time as we were swimming through trees and getting a little scratched up. We reached a giant rock, and while taking a break, we came to the conclusion that we weren't going to make it. We didn't know how far we had come, but as close as we could have been, we didn't think continuing would be worth it.The path down the mountain seemed way worse than on the way up for some reason. Once we got down we had an eye-opening moment. We could see the giant rock in the distance: we only made it up about a fourth of the mountain. While Petrarch's climb was filled with inspiration and perspective, my experience was one of sorrow and crushed 10-year old dreams. The mountain, and the world for that matter, was a bigger place than we thought.
However, despite the disappointment, the hike created a great memory. My friend and I still reminisce about that experience when we see each other. If we had made it up that mountain, we may have had great feelings of achievement, but we would have missed out on the humor of talking about our innocence and miserableness. I also learned a great lesson about preparedness. Morale of the story: always start your adventure with at least some sort of plan.
That is a funny little story and I definitely had similar experiences but now the question is, have you returned? I know you only made it up about a fourth of the way when you were ten but have you returned and conquered that mountain? If you have, how was it? And if you haven't, why not? It might add to your story to be able to tell them that you eventually returned to that mountain and marched all the way to the top and experienced all the beauty it had to offer. :)
ReplyDeleteAt first I was sad that you guys didn't make it all the way up the mountain, but I really liked your "take away" at the end. You guys made the experience into a rational event that is a metaphor for the human experience--we don't always reach our goals and that is ok!. Love the perspective! :)
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