The Mountains We Choose to Climb
Posted by Nerdyy
Anne looked up above her, a foreboding vision of ice and rock loomed beyond. So here it was, the "unclimbable" final ascent, although the word unclimbable referred back to an era in the past. Sure, people had conquered that final climb, but Anne hadn't - yet.
She looked back behind her, and memories of the past flooded back into her mind. It was about two years ago that her world had almost collapsed. An innocuous 50 mile summer bike ride had ended in a heap of twisted metal and a shattered femur. The road back to fitness had been brutally long and hard, but Anne had persevered, having her shattered leg put back together with surgery followed by hours of painful rehab and physical therapy. Two years ago, when she was lying in a crumbled heap in the hospital, her face dissolved in tears, she would not have thought she would be here. But here she was.
She thought wistfully of all the fellow climbers of her group that she had left behind, lower down the slopes. Some unable to keep up with her, others unwilling. She thought of her twin sister Jo, who was aghast that she had even contemplated this. "Why, why are you even doing this?", she asked. Jolie or Jo for short, was 12 minutes younger than Anne, and yet it would be very difficult to comprehend that these two siblings were born of the same womb, so far apart were their personalities. Jo was diffident, racked with self doubt and somewhat unambitious while Anne was the exact opposite. Brave, fearless, a picture of self confidence, and very very ambitious. "I am not doing this for anyone", Anne had replied, "I am doing this for myself, to show me that I can."
A cold gust of wind snapped Anne back from the past that she sometimes had a habit of slipping into. There were a fixed number of daylight hours, and she could not afford to let the minutes slip by. Clenching her jaw, she turned her head back towards the final peak. With her ice axe she dug into the rock, and pulled herself up one step.
She was now a step closer to the summit she had always craved.
She looked back behind her, and memories of the past flooded back into her mind. It was about two years ago that her world had almost collapsed. An innocuous 50 mile summer bike ride had ended in a heap of twisted metal and a shattered femur. The road back to fitness had been brutally long and hard, but Anne had persevered, having her shattered leg put back together with surgery followed by hours of painful rehab and physical therapy. Two years ago, when she was lying in a crumbled heap in the hospital, her face dissolved in tears, she would not have thought she would be here. But here she was.
She thought wistfully of all the fellow climbers of her group that she had left behind, lower down the slopes. Some unable to keep up with her, others unwilling. She thought of her twin sister Jo, who was aghast that she had even contemplated this. "Why, why are you even doing this?", she asked. Jolie or Jo for short, was 12 minutes younger than Anne, and yet it would be very difficult to comprehend that these two siblings were born of the same womb, so far apart were their personalities. Jo was diffident, racked with self doubt and somewhat unambitious while Anne was the exact opposite. Brave, fearless, a picture of self confidence, and very very ambitious. "I am not doing this for anyone", Anne had replied, "I am doing this for myself, to show me that I can."
A cold gust of wind snapped Anne back from the past that she sometimes had a habit of slipping into. There were a fixed number of daylight hours, and she could not afford to let the minutes slip by. Clenching her jaw, she turned her head back towards the final peak. With her ice axe she dug into the rock, and pulled herself up one step.
She was now a step closer to the summit she had always craved.
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