Ever do that exercise that asks you to “describe yourself in one word?”
What word would you choose?
For myself, I use:
I was expecting to go to Worlds this year and reach a certain number. A certain rank. A certain win. What I came home with was very different than my expectations. I came home with a less-than-stellar performance. A loss of numbers. A loss in my head. But I realized it was never about winning at all. It was something else all together.
GUESS WHAT. I did it. I went on my first solo hike out here in the PNW.
It wasn’t epic. It wasn’t hard. It was barely 4 miles. But it was scary. And I was on a mountain named Cougar Mountain. It wasn’t until halfway through my hike that another lone hiker told me she had seen an actual cougar out there before and it was good to carry poles even if they weren’t needed. I ALWAYS carry my poles and this was the one time I didn’t. I may have had a slight wave of panic in that moment.
It took a couple of extra days, but I really had to force myself to sit down and reflect on 2017. Anyone else feel like every day was the end of days (without the hope of Arnold Schwarzenegger coming to the rescue)?
Damn. 2017 was moody AF. No matter. There were wins and losses, new territories traveled and inner dark corners explored.