Moving Mountains
Tired but triumphant
What do you do when you get a new job and want to celebrate?
Well, I don't know what you do, but I try to kill myself by scrambling up and down a 10,000 foot tall mountain with two friends in just over six hours.
At least that's what I did on Sunday when I trekked up Going to the Sun Mountain in Glacier National Park. (See that middle peak?)
I've been on long hikes through bear country. I've even sprinted up a monster sand dune. Twice.
But climbing that mountain was one of the toughest things I've ever done. (I've got the scrapes and aching body to prove it, too.)
Halfway through I wanted to quit.
My legs ached. My hands were beaten and scraped. And I had two older guys waiting for me to catch up, yelling motivating and encouraging words such as "Hey J-Crew! Quit slowing us down!" Or, my personal favorite, "Yo Tommy Hilfiger, let's move it!"
Thanks guys.
But I knew how pissed off I'd be at myself if I didn't suck it up, push through it, and make it to the top.
I resigned to climb...up...the...fucking... mountain even if I had to crawl. (Which, ironically, I did half the time to avoid sliding down loose rocks, boulders, and various shrubs.)
A few hours later, we snapped the picture for this blog.
So this is where you'd expect me to take the easy route and compare my mountain excursion to other areas of life.
Well, damn it, that's exactly what I'm going to do. (Mainly because I can't move and am banging the keyboard with a pencil stuck in my mouth so as to not inflict further damage to my broken body.)
We all have challenges that seem out of reach or just downright difficult. We all want to give up at some point.
If you can learn to push through your pain and make it to the top you'll see and experience wonderful things that many people will never see or experience.
And you'll love yourself for it afterward.
Go climb your own version of a mountain and let me know how it goes.
So move your ass, JCrew. And don't ever slow down.
(And no, I don't really have a pencil in my mouth. It's a pen.)
Comments for This Entry
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Hey Congrats Nate!...Why do you think I backpack and hike so much when I am jobless...at least I feel like I am conquering somehting! Anyway, I am so proud of you! I just applied for two jobs so maybe I will think about what I am going to do to celebrate if I get them...and yes, I want both of them..
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One of my good friends has recently started forcing me to hike (read: run) up a small mountain where I live. It's one of those ones that a college went up and put a big-ass white letter on.
Pretty much, we race up the hill to touch it. By the time I get to the top, all I can think about is trying to regulate my breathing enough to be able to kill my friend for making me do this, but I really do feel better after I'm back down at the bottom.
Jeff -
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You cannot improve your past, but you can improve your future. Once time is wasted, life is wasted.
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s all around the world ,we know Michael Jordan is the super star in NBA .His quotes is one of my favorite ,that is .“I can accept failure, but can not accept to give up.”He always called the god of basketball ,air jordan. http://www.xjordanshoes.com
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Brook 9:54am Aug 5, 2008