A Little Worn

Climbing up a Mountain

Yesterday, I went up a mountain with the teachers from my educational institute. At first, it wasn’t too bad. I was sweaty, but I felt this was doable and I could get it done without any problems.

Then I got to several parts where I had to do some real climbing.

Mind you, I went up parts where I can feel challenged since the climb felt more like a walk, but I found it was quite hard considering I don’t exercise regularly. As I’m typing, I can feel my legs and my sides hurting a little. Eventually I got to the top and can feel a cool breeze as I was sitting down on a rock. With some of the teachers at the top, we shared some makgeolli and ate some ice cream and enjoyed the view of the mountain and the city below.

Not Everyone Made It but…

A few teachers didn’t climb all the way to the peak. Some came late, so they reached 90% of the way. Others just got to the halfway point and felt this was good enough and went back down.

Amazingly, teachers who had kids made it all the way to the top. One teacher carried his daughter I think all the way to the top and down. Wow.

Now you might be thinking, “So what? It’s just a mountain. Mountains are a pain in a butt to climb.” True, it was a pain to climb and it’s certainly not for everyone. I just think that if you’re going to come to an event, you might as well enjoy the time and do everything that’s part of the event. That’s how you grow a connection, an understanding with others. Anyways, that’s another story to tell for later.

Success is 100%

Kim Yu-na said that for water to boil, it needs to be at 100 degrees Celsius. If the water reaches only 99 degrees, no matter how hard you’ve been working to reach that point or no matter how close it is to boiling, it will NEVER boil unless you push it through to the final one degree (see point 10 of the forum post). I learned this science lesson a long time ago in elementary school, but to hear it in this context in relation to her success is incredible. For a person so young to achieve success with that kind of mindset shows one example of great human potential.

This brings me back to the mountain. In life, we will have varying degrees of success. Some will reach all the way to the top. Others may get close. Many will get to the halfway point and say, “Meh, it’s no use.” The really hard things in life and making them work will come down to 1 degree, 1 second, 1 extra piece of work, 1 extra something. If you’re struggling with something really big, remember, it could be just one thing away. That’s when you really have to fight for it. Go all in. You may fail, but the lesson learned from failing will bring over to becoming successful for sure.