Tuesday, April 6, 2010

It's Not All About The Climb

When Greg Mortenson tells us about his first experience climbing a mountain we realize that it wasn't his favorite experience. Only eleven years old, "Greg says, 'I gagged and puked my way up Kilimanjaro. I hated the climb. But standing on the summit at dawn, seeing the sweep of the African savannah below me, hooked me forever on climbing.' "(37) As I read Greg's quote, something struck me that correlates my life and the main idea throughout, so far, Three Cups of Tea. It's not all about the climbs we make in life to reach our destination, a major part of the climb is just looking over our figurative mountain edge and seeing where we've come from. The rewards in life can only be acknowledged if we reflect back onto the obstacles we surpassed in life to obtain a goal in life; if we've never had a mountain to climb in our life, where is the reward for where we are today?

5 comments:

  1. In addition to all of that, this quote also reminds me of Miley Cyrus's song "The Climb". It's the climb that makes the end result possible, it's what keeps us going and makes us able to accomplish great things in life. This is important to the book also in a sense of fate, he could have stopped climbing when he started puking, but because he kept on going he eventually would discover a new path in life.

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  2. I agree. Sometimes we don't realize right away how challenges and changes in life are for the better because we're too busy suffering during "the climb". It takes the new perspective of seeing where we are versus where we had been for us to appreciate the work it took us to get there.

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  3. When I created this blog, I actually was thinking about The Climb by Miley Cyrus. It felt like a semi amusing title..

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  4. The only things in life that are worth having are those you must work for and the ones that mean the most and are of most importance are never easy to acquire and will force you to endure hardships and at times push you beyond your limits.

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  5. I like that quote, it just goes to show if you work hard enough you can accomplish anything you want in life, but it doesnt matter unless you can look back and understand what you accomplished.

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