2019
2019: a year like I have never had.
Lower lows and higher highs I think describe this year well. For a range like that, I thought I was going to come out battered but I’m far from it. If anything, I might say things are as good as they have ever been.
This wild year has parts that are still sorting themselves out, but I can tell you they have shaped me indelibly. I landed smack in the middle of situations that I felt vastly unprepared to handle, and others that I was proudly prepared to manage. To contrast the messes that I often found myself wading through, this year saw the realization of a decade of dreams. Now, walking into a new year, hell a new freaking decade, I am curious to see what will define the future. Seeing as I am living in the middle of the 5-year plan that has guided the previous decade it looks like it is time to sit down and get to work on what the next ten might look like.
Admittedly, this year of dream-realization has left me lost to a degree. That is the opposite of what I thought might happen. Graduating from the Academy in May was the end of the “what do you want to do after high school” phase. And, frankly, it has led a bit of an identity crisis. At this moment I am living the dreams that I thought up as early as a kid sitting in middle school. I've spent a decade trying to become what I am right now. Frankly, I lacked the forethought to consider the question of what then? Where do I go from here? How do I define the next five years, the next ten years? What dreams am I willing to relinquish for the hope of fulfilling another?
Highlights, people, and things I hope to remember:
+ My first time with ASIST & safeTALK.
+ Mt. Washington, NH, and friends that visit Antarctica.
+ Morocco, Mt. Toubkal, and arguing with extortionists.
+ Climbing graduation week with Genevieve, Evan, Cam, and Maxwell.
+ Memorial Day Weekend with Chris and company.
+ Eastern Sierra’s with Alex and Genevieve.
+ Mt. Baker with Evan and Mark.
+ The four-day ferry to Sitka.
+ Rock the Dock, cut short by northern lights.
+ That sketchy slip on Cross Mountain.
+ Stardust Ball. Lord of the Rings group costume. Second place, I think? I missed the award…
+ I chased a brown bear for a mile on my bike.
+ That time I was medevaced from KUKUI for a sore throat.
+ AIARE I at Steven’s Pass… So many crashes.
