At the beginning of the year, my brother and I decided we were going to hike the Grand Canyon. We went about a month ago in the middle of June. It was such an amazing place to see!
I enjoyed the trip, and overall, I might say it was a great experience...all except for the end. We spent the night and started hiking out early in the morning. That would not have been bad, had I not had carbon copy symptoms of the stomach flu. To put it lightly, I felt horrible! I felt like I was experiencing something straight from hell. (Excuse the term). To even add to that, we each had a 40 pound pack to carry. Being down there, feeling like I was, knowing what I had to do, and looking up towards the top, it seemed to go on forever. It was a very daunting feeling. I felt very similarly to what a bug must feel like at the bottom of a vase.
In the Grand Canyon, they tell you not to hike between the hours of 10:00 AM and about 4:00 PM because the heat is so bad. I knew we had to be to the rim before 10:00. I already knew I was in trouble, because I did not eat anything (do you blame me?) and I had not had very much to drink. We started at 4:00 AM. I just kept telling myself to put one foot in front of the other. The last thing I wanted to do was hike out of the Grand Canyon, but I knew I had to. There was really no other choice. We got to the first rest stop and we kept going. I had built up a rhythm. Even as horrible as I felt, I knew if I stopped, I would only feel worse. I wasn't about to do that. So on and up we went. The further we went up, the worse I felt, and it seemed the top was not getting any nearer. My brother finally told me to stop and rest, forced me to sit down, and like I said before, once I lost my rhythm, I threw up. Too bad it was just that little water I got down earlier, because I knew I needed it. At that point my brother started to get really worried. He wasn't aware of how bad I was feeling until that moment. It was getting hotter and I had no fluids in me. He thought maybe it was heat exhaustion, and very likely, that is probably what it was.
So from then on, my brother was trying to give me pep talks like, "We're almost there...". Then I would look up and find that to my dismay, it never looked any closer. If I had felt better at the time, I would have laughed at him each time he said it. There were only two moments as we were coming up that I actually thought to myself, "I don't think I am going to make it out of here." to then tell myself, "You are going to get to the rim! You will!" Then I would push myself again, putting one foot in front of the other.
My motivation was one word,
ice. I was going to reward myself with ice once I got out, and lots of it! I promised myself that ice would be my constant companion after this was over (and it has been). More than halfway to the top, I started to feel like drinking water, so I took my chances, and drank whenever that happened. Nearer to the top I heard a bus, and I almost cried. Four hours later from when we began, we surfaced from what I then lovingly referred to as "the ditch". The walk to the car seemed a long endeavor, but once I saw it, I had a wave of insanity rush over me and thought to myself that I should name my car. Although insane, since then I have found a suitable name and call her Sheyenne. I went over to my car and hugged her, to then be quickly pulled off by my brother as to not cause any embarrassment (I am sure). We proceeded to find the nearest general store and we each got a 32 oz. cup of Sprit, filled with ice. It was one of the best things I had ever tasted! And as luck would have it, I felt 100% better within a half hour of resurfacing. Dirty and tired, but I felt good. It is in times like these that we really notice how much we take for granted like the fact that we feel healthy for the majority of the time in our lives.
The moral of this story is not for you to feel bad for me. I realized after the whole ordeal was over, that I can do hard things. Before this happened, I thought that doing an hour of exercise every day is a hard thing, and it is. I have always been proud of myself for that. Doing things that I say I will do, regardless of how hard it is. However, I realized that the way to see what kind of a person you really are and how strong you are, is how you handle hard things when they are not planned. When you seem to already be down and something else happens that makes you wonder whether or not you can get through it. You have to ask yourself, can you put one foot in front of the other, or will you just give up and break down? As someone once said, "You are only as strong as you make up your mind to be".
While I was in Arizona, I bought a necklace. It is strung with black stones, hung with a bear shaped stone at the bottom. I am not one much for putting decorations in my car, but I put this necklace around my rear view mirror. Every time I get into my car and look at it, it reminds me that I can do hard things and that I am brave. I feel like we could all use a reminder like that in our lives.
Looking back, realizing what a difficult thing that was for me, it has given me the strength to know that when things happen in life that are not easy, and I don't just mean physically, that I can get through it because I know I can do hard things. When you have moments in your life that are hard and it seems unbearable, remember that you too can do hard things. Don't ever give up. Life isn't always easy, but we all just have to remember that we are not always going to be hiking up the Grand Canyon. We are always going to have our Grand Canyons to climb, that is inevitable, but we aren't always going to be climbing. Life is also enjoyable, and we can look forward to those moments when we are trying to get to the rim of our problems.
I finally went and had PRK laser vision correction done to my eyes! Most people will recognize it as LASIK. The difference between the two is the way they get through your cornia to do the actual lasering process. Unlike LASIK surgery, PRK does not require the creation of a corneal flap. Instead, the epithelium is gently removed and the laser is applied to reshape the surface of the cornea to fix your vision and get rid of the astigmatisms. Since an astigmatism (the front of the eye) is shaped like a football rather than a basketball, a clean circle cannot be cut and get the same result as with a normal shaped eye during LASIK. Therefore, they had to get rid of part of the top of my eyes that is no thicker than a piece of hair. It was a very painful recovery, since the healing is much more strained. But all is well. It has only been a week and a half since I had it done, so it is still healing, but it is an AMAZING thing, technology. From having very, very bad vision, to not needing any contacts or glasses, I would recommend it to anyone!
