Living for the Experiences

Growing up in Northern Colorado, I had what I consider to be one of the prettiest mountain views in the world available from my front door. This view was so amazing primarily because of two mountain peaks (known as twin peaks) that rose above above all others in the areas. Seeing those two peaks every day, filled me with a deep desire from a very young age to climb the higher of the two, Longs Peak. This was a particularly unique desire for me because I did not particularly like hiking at a young age; yet this desire stayed with me for several years.

Because I was not particularly fond of hiking, I continued to push off this desire, telling myself that I would eventually hike to the top, but I was in no hurry. I would have many opportunities to climb it in the future. In the meantime, several of my friends and family members did the hike and reached the top, and every time that they came back with amazing stories of the view from the top. When I heard these stories, my desire peaked and yearned so bad to reach the top of the world(as it seemed to me) and be able to see everything around you.

When I was almost 18 years old, I had the opportunity to climb this mountain with a group of friends. I knew that the hike would be challenging, but even knowing that, I was not fully prepared for what would come. The trail is about 16 miles round trip, and in that 16 miles, the trail ascends nearly a mile in elevation and then descends down the same path. Along the way, I was required to climb up and over boulders bigger than cars, hike along ridges with 1000 foot drops and finally climb an exhausting hill full of gravel which seemed to thwart all of my progress as I tried to ascend.

However, all of this, despite being extremely challenging, was bearable because I would be able to see the great view at the top.

Finally, we began to ascend the last 100 feet, and my whole body filled with anticipation, and as I climbed the last few steps to look back over the valley my heart sank. Dense clouds had covered all but a small portion of the plains.

I was devastated, but surprisingly only for a moment, because as I thought about all of the hard work that it had taken to get to the top of the mountain I realized how amazing it was just to have made it to the top. The amazing part about climbing Longs Peak was not the end goal of see the view, but the great experiences and accomplishments along the way. This has since become, by far, my favorite hiking trip because I was able to see beyond the end goal and have fun along the way, even when it was hard.

As I have thought back on this day, it has occurred to me that most people are like I was when I was a kid: they only care about the end result; once they get out of school or get married or get a good job or become famous, suddenly everything will be fine. However, this experience and many others, have taught me that if you can't find joy in the experiences that you have along the way, you will never be satisfied with the end goal.

Life's hard sometimes. We can either dream of better days, or we can acknowledge the great things that happen to us even in our hardest moments.