Reaching Higher Heights
Kevin Williams
Today
was a day of raw emotion, ranging from anger and fear to joy and the feeling of
accomplishment. After days and days of learning how to climb we were finally
prepared to actually climb. Jeff showed us how he sets in the ropes using the
bolts Summit has in place for participants in their program. After that we
headed to the bottom for the long anticipated day of climbing. Mixed emotions
ran through the air as we began tying ourselves in looking up at a wall of
stone. Some group members were excited, while others were scared but regardless
it was a task to be accomplished. I was the first to climb on the far right
side and I was a little nervous but was mostly excited. Thinking it’d be easy I
found myself having difficultly as I was near the top but strong words of
encouragement from below kept me motivated to get to the top. After reaching
the top I felt a great deal of accomplishment and even better I felt a stronger
trust toward my group members who made sure I was safe all the way up and all
the way down. That was great and all but what I thought felt even better was
belaying others while they climbed, motivating and cheering them on to help
them accomplish a task they didn’t think they could come close to. That feeling
was far better then what I gained from climbing myself and it brought an even
greater sense of accomplishment than I could gain from myself alone. Overall,
not just for myself but for everyone, we have gained so much from this day,
whether it was overcoming fears, pushing ourselves further than we thought, or
coming together better as a group, we have all reached higher heights by
climbing which will benefit us all greatly as a group.
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