I love finding pictures of myself from years, and years and years ago. Being that I'm into day 4 on my sick bed (sofa), I started looking through some of my photo albums that have been boxed away for the past year. Most of the photos are from my adventures in far places. One photo particularly caught my eye. This is me from 1993, at the silly young age of 24. Climbing a mountain in Yosemite Park, CA.
My friend and I enrolled in a four day mountaineering and climbing school in Yosemite. This particular picture has special meaning because I truly thought I might never make it down from the mountainside that day. It was day three of our climbing class. It was tough. I had problems early on climbing over a particular crack in the rock and I couldn't move. I was stranded for nearly 40 minutes trying to maneuver out my predicament.
Strength was leaving me (sayounara, sister), and I wasn't sure if I could make it to the top. At that moment, just before desperation set in, I heard my friend calling my name. I thought perhaps he was going to offer me some words of encouragement that would carry me straight to the top of that mountain. I looked in his direction, waiting to hear those words that would inspire, but instead of, "Come on, you can do it," I heard, "Say cheese!" Click. He had taken my picture. I wanted to laugh, I wanted to cry, I wanted him to repel over the side of the cliff with faulty rope.
Obviously I made it down off that mountain, and I have some fantastic pictures to remember the experience. I learned two very important things about myself during my climbs on the mountains in Yosemite:
1. I can do anything I want. I just have to ask fear to step aside for a bit.
2. I'm a ground person. I like the ground.
--Fortuitous Observer
