At age three I scaled the side of my family’s piano. Shortly thereafter I graduated to climbing my dad’s bookshelves and then set my sights on increasingly taller trees in the neighborhood. On my first day of kindergarten, I pulled myself up the rope in P.E. class all the way to the ceiling of the gym. My classmates and teacher were boggled. At age eight I finally reached the summit of the largest pecan tree in the neighborhood. It was a glorious feat. In middle school, shortly after reading Into Thin Air, I convinced an older cousin to take me rock climbing. I’ve been hooked ever since. For me, climbing is much more than just a hobby; it is an all encompassing passion. It motivates me like nothing else ever has. My mind enters a meditative state when I’m climbing. When I am fully engaged in the rock, the stress and static that usually clouds my head is replaced by clarity and happiness. During stressful days, I like to go to a nearby park and climb for a little while before I start studying. It is incredibly therapeutic. Just for a little while, my mind focuses solely on the rock, and I feel no stress about my exams. This feeling of exhilaration and mental clarity, coupled with my love of the outdoors, drives my passion for rock climbing.
In high school, academics ruled my life. I had friends and hobbies, but my age and scholastic obligations limited my lifestyle. I accepted the importance of these obligations and decided to embrace them fully. I worked hard in my classes and did well. All the while I assured myself that after I graduated I would take a year to be free from obligations and to live differently.
My
plan was to defer college admission for a year, and, along with my best friend,
spend the time driving through
I felt out of place and unmotivated at the university, and I soon realized that I needed to do something else. I wrote in a World Literature journal about “my fear that I’ve given up on my dreams by not taking a year off to enjoy myself and climb.” During that semester in school, I formed a belief that happiness alone is at the root of a successful life. Several readings in the class heavily influenced my thoughts, and I resolved to go to “the other side of the hedge,”[1] so that I could become a “truant boy…roaming the countryside, nursing [my] project in unclouded joy.”[2]
After that first
semester, I set out on a pilgrimage to find liberation by experiencing 
happiness
untainted by normal obligations and stress.
Since I’d been planning a similar trip for years, I had enough money
saved to leave immediately. I traveled
alone, lived out of my car, and spent many weeks climbing and exploring the
vast geography of the western 
I
was completely alone and had quite a bit of down time, I usually spent several
hours each day writing in a journal.
Often, I would spend some time writing about my feelings and
thoughts. In contrast to the negative
tone of my emotional analyses while in school, I wrote how happy and free I
felt. In one instance, I spent time
observing the expansive beauty of
As my travels and introspection progressed, I discovered some problems in my resolution. The first problem arose when I saw the selfishness inherent in a life devoted to climbing. I worried that I would feel guilt or regret after dedicating myself to such an egotistical pursuit.
My second problem
became more and more apparent each time I pulled into a gas station. Although I saved quite a bit of money for
the trip, I’ve never had the luxury of wealth, and soon my bank account began
to dwindle. I cannot argue with the
crusty climber in
During the two semesters since, I’ve been mulling my realizations and trying to resolve the conflict between my financial limitations, my love of climbing, and the egoism inherent in the sport. I believe now that I have “hammered my thoughts into unity” and have constructed a vision for my life which will allow me quench my thirst to climb while avoiding the problems of economics and selfishness.[3] The two components of this vision will allow me to climb constantly, live above the poverty line, and utilize my experience and knowledge to enhance the lives of others.
The first part of my vision is to be a climbing guide. This option is obviously attractive because it pays better than living out of a van, and it still allows me to spend my life climbing in nature. Besides solving the financial problem, working as a climbing guide makes the sport much less ego oriented. While guiding, I do not climb for myself. Instead, my focus is teaching a client what I know and helping him to reach his own goals. Many people yearn to climb but do not have the knowledge to do so themselves. As a guide, I help them achieve their goals.
I remember being thirteen years old and being awestruck and inspired by the guides who taught me to climb. I was so taken by what they did that it is now my goal to do the same. Today I spend my summers teaching teenagers about the sport and working for the guides who first taught me. I am always overjoyed to work with kids who share my love for climbing. If I could inspire some of them, my life as a climber would extend beyond my own ego by helping others discover the joy that the sport provides.
Even
though I can’t learn to guide in my classes at the university, my time here is
not wasted. I’m working towards
admission into American Mountain Guide Association courses, and I spend my
summers as a climbing guide in
The second component of my vision is to write about my experiences as a climber. As a writer, I can describe the experience of climbing in a way that is informative and entertaining to others. More than this, if readers utilize their sympathetic imagination, I can allow them to experience the feeling of climbing without ever leaving the couch. My education in Plan II stresses my development as a writer and will hopefully leave me with the necessary skills to successfully convey how it feels to climb. If I succeed in recording my stories, my experiences could enhance and transform the lives of others long after I am dead.
Recently, I read a commencement speech given by Jon Stewart. In it, he addressed the future of the graduates and asked: “So how do you know what is the right path to choose to get the result that you desire?” He answered, “You won’t. And accepting that greatly eases the anxiety of your life experience.”[4] I found this to be a worthy nugget of wisdom and I’ve tried to internalize it. Until recently, I never allowed myself to consider this path because of the uncertainty of success and the pressure to do something else. After I read Jon Stewart’s speech, I decided to ignore these pressures and do what really makes me happy. It was then that I formed this vision for my future.
I imagine that some people will tell me that I can’t make money guiding, and that I definitely can’t make money writing. They may say that I’m wasting a prestigious Plan II degree, and that I should do something respectable like be a lawyer and maybe run for office. If you want to know the truth, I don’t give a damn. I know that to be successful I need only be happy, and I know this: “We don’t have to be anybody in particular. We don’t have to be “this” or “that.” We are free simply to be.”[5]
Word Count: 1,504