This is a memoir about my climbing my first moutain. Chapter 1: Not So Perfect Mountain Day I looked around at the gloomy mountain terrain glazed with fresh dew from the night before; the ground beneath was brown soil both squishy and moist. The sky was one solid color of grey, which hovered over our heads constantly wherever we went.
"What a perfect day for climbing!" encouraging and sarcastic words that came from my uncle Bill, who always messing around. Eager to conquer the mountain I started down the trail taking point in our group of three."This is definitely not a perfect day for climbing. It's all sad and wet even cold. Heck I'm freezing!" I was practically talking to myself inside my head.
I came to a boardwalk that was absolutely beautiful and set perfectly over the wide variety of vegetation, covering the ground with a deep green roof. As I took my first step on the two planks of wood it gave off a magnificent sound with every step we took, taking us through the mini forest of ferns. I felt like I was in a dream that finally came true.
I looked ahead and I was a wall of roots. We stopped and looked at each other, my uncle smiled as I looked at the surroundings trying to locate the actual trail that we needed to follow. I realized that the wall of thick tree roots was the trail; excited I approached it as a challenge, a mighty test. Step by step I sized the wall up to see if I could conquer it. I jumped as high as I could and latched on to whatever I could hold on to. I pulled myself up and felt like a gladiator defeating its challenger. My uncle and cousin looked up at me and laughed then proceeded to climb the wall with much ease.
We continued up the mountain clambering and climbing trying to conquer this mountain. I was panting constantly trying to get quick breaks in so I could catch my breath. I caught myself looking ahead trying to figure out how much longer I had left until we reach the top of this huge pile of rock and earth that was set forth upon us.
Above lied an opening in the vegetation, as if anything beyond that point was nothing. It looks like a beautiful finish line after a marathon, the trees just arched over the opening. The ground elevation stayed the same as if it were meant to be a last push for the finish line. I took off, I couldn't wait to get some top and achieve greatness and get to the final destination. I passed through the finish gate feeling like I just accomplished greatness, to be stopped in my tracks. Expecting to see the world and feel like a champion I looked around and felt like I did all of that for nothing, looking around the spectacular mountain was in the middle of a huge grey cloud of nothingness. I felt like I'd been cheated, my head fell down looking at the rock beneath me with that my shoulders gave way and fell also.
"Hey Juergen! Sometimes you get to all the way to the end of a rainbow and find that there's no pot of gold. Life itself isn't all about the destination it's about the journey and how you got there." My uncle preached as he passed through the finish gate realizing the grave misfortune, yet still trying to keep things positive.
Still looking down I thought in my head yeah whatever I don't care what you think, we just spent around 3 hours of climbing to get to the top and achieve nothing. I'm turned around and walked back towards the finish line to start my way back down. But then I started to think more and more of what he had said. “He was right! Is was so much fun climbing the mountain, who even cares about that we can't see anything right now! The climbing itself was a load of fun! I followed them to the edge of the mountain where we sat on the cold hard rock face looking out into the gray nothingness.
Then my Uncle Bill pulled out three Hersey’s Chocolate Bars that could not have looked more appetizing. He passed them out, as I held this golden piece of art my mouth started to water, the chocolate seemed like a pot of gold. We all looked at each other and we made a toast to a morning well spent. There we were sitting in a cloud, eating chocolate, feeling on top of the world.