I enjoy traveling and have traveled to many places around the world, but the best out of all of them was an 8-day trek to the Annapurna Base Camp, in the Himalaya mountains. Only when you are at the top of the ABC do you realize how beautiful it is up there. You can see the three peaks that surround the ABC peak, all magnificent and covered in perpetual snow. The way the snow on top of those peaks glistened in the morning sun was so beautiful, like they were diamonds, but also alive. Even after 19 years, I can remember it like it was yesterday.
Everyone wants to make it to the top, but they don’t want to put forth the effort. People want fun and excitement, but behind anyone’s success, there’s a process that requires patience, loneliness, and boredom, and you have to keep walking on the same path no matter what happens.
To be honest, I hated hiking and I could barely make it up small hills. I actually took that trip in order to relieve my stress, so I wasn’t in good shape mentally nor physically. The guide told me at the beginning that I wouldn’t make it to the top. When I met the guide again at the end of the trip, I told him that I didn’t think that I would make it to the top. He replied, “Himalaya is a spiritual mountain. It’s not the climber who chooses the mountain, it’s the mountain who chooses the climber.” Suddenly, I felt so grateful to the mountain for letting me climb to the peak, even though I was not a good climber and had made countless mistakes all along the way.
Initially, I didn’t think I’d be able to make it to the top, but as I got closer and closer to the peak, the more driven I was to make it all the way. Just before we reached the peak, in a moment of greed, I tried to climb the mountain without the Sherpa. I almost died. I thought I was good enough and deserved to climb the mountain, not knowing that the mountain chose me and let me climb it. The mountain showed me its anger, without saying anything. Darkness fell at 6 pm and the snow on either side of the road piled up as high as my waist. My body was freezing from the cold, and I could barely take another step. I continued to walk toward a tiny light coming from the base camp, but it didn’t seem to come any closer. For a moment, I thought it would be comfortable to stop and lie down in the snow. I thought to myself, ‘Ah, this is how people end up dying in the mountains.’
Looking back, I think I was able to keep walking because I never had any expectations about the trek, and at the same time everyone I met on their way back down gave me hope about making it. When I finally reached the peak, the mountain gave me everything. It was the most beautiful sight that I’ve ever seen in my life, and it felt like the mountain was rejoicing together with me.
There are times when we question this life that we are living. Who am I? Where do I come from, and where am I going? Am I living the right way? Is it okay to keep living like this? What will be left of me if I just live like this and die one day?
The trip to find your true self and the trip that I took to hike the Himalayas are the same in the sense that it’s not easy to reach the peak. But if there’s a Sherpa that will go with you and guide you to the top, your journey can be easier, faster, and safer.
I’d like to introduce you to a video that might serve as a good guide in your journey to find your true self:
