Yesterday was amazing! The old part of Québec is surrounded by a fortified wall, with turrets and cannons. It was built by the French, then conquered by the English, and now, tourists and locals walk along the ramparts and hang out up there. I live inside the old city and for a month now, I've been practicing climbing the wall. The catch? I'm scared of climbing. Tree climbing? Fun! Rock climbing? Pants-wettingly scary. But something about climbing alone seemed to take some pressure off (and something about having no rope makes falling not a great option.) Eventually I found three places I could climb consistently. I started climbing the wall to get home from work, and so if there were people up there they would see this guy in a shirt and tie poke his head up. I always got a kick out of that. Scuffed up my work shoes pretty badly though. Fortunately they cost 2$ at goodwill. Then one day I looked over and saw a taller section that looked doable.... maybe. I tried it, and didn't make it halfway. I tried it 4 more times on different days, and each time I fell. I would get up almost to the top, scared and exhausted, my arms would just start shaking and my feet would slip. I was at the point this week where I couldn't fall asleep because I'd be replaying those last seconds over and over in my mind, and I couldn't concentrate at work cause I knew that at 5 o'clock I'd have to try again. Honestly, my palms would be sweaty just thinking about it. But! Yesterday... I made it. It scared me out of my mind to climb those last few feet, but I finally, finally, finally made it. [Insert take-home message here] 
11 comments:
its really nice to read your blog dude, i.. should really start working on mine.. but.. oh well.. im Chilean, so im lazy i guess right?
anyway, last exam this monday, yey!!!
take care
Tito
i wish i'd be coming here as often as i could. i've been busy, it is not even a joke.
i'll do my best from now on.
take care oxoxo
i believe in you!!! next time your climbing walls try to remember the story about the little engine that could. i'm sure you'll be climbing walls like spiderman in no time.
There is something exhilerating about that kind of thing. I was never a big climber except once, when I was maybe twelve, and stumbled onto this incredibly great pine tree, just made for climbing, in my grandfather's woods.
It was like going up a ladder. But as I got really high, I saw how spindly the branches were starting to look, and felt myself swaying with the breezes along with the tree top. I looked down.
Bad move! I stared in awe for about a minute over how high I was, then inched down without looking again till near the bottom!
BTW, thanks for the memory. I visited that site when I was maybe eight - lots of relatives in Quebec.
i don't think i'd be much good climbing walls. i've gotten stuck up a couple trees in my youth (as well as that time i fell headfirst out of one while i was supposed to be babysitting.. oops). all in all, perhaps a little too daring for me. i do manage to remove large patches of skin from my shoulder just by running, after all..
love reading it. :)
it looks like a summer book full of adventures. soo amuzing ;)
xoxo
pssst... where are you? why no new posts?
Hey Hey, I have the same question. Where are ya bud?! Hopefully you didn't fall off the wall...we don't need more Humpty Dumpty's to clean up..but if you did I'll bring all the King's horses and all the King's men and...well, hopefully we'll have a better ending to this story. BTW you reminded me of a quote from my mom, "I'll never be too old to climb a tree". We should all remember that!
yeah, where are you dude???
ah! you have been spammed! where are you?! i hope you didn't kill yourself climbing walls! be careful!!! come back soon...
I'm back! Well, actually I'm still gone, but I got online for the first time in a while tonight. I wasn't in the mood to post, but apparently I have blog readers who miss me and so as weird as this is, I feel a little guilty and so I wrote an update.
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