Touching the Void

Until now I have never understood why people would even enjoy climbing humongous cold icy and rocky mountains for days and as I and most of us see it, we would swear never to set foot in that kind of place because it is hauntingly dangerous. Today I watched a very real documentary film about 2 friends, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates. They were 2 very ambitious mountaineers whose aim was to conquer an unclimbed West face of a notorious 21,000 feet peak called 'Siula Grande' in Peru in 1985. And something went really really really wrong.

The movie started off by showing the beautiful scenery God created of the mountains. When I saw the scene where there was nothing else but whites of the snow and the thick clouds, and the blue sky together with strong sound of wind blowing every now and then, it was gorgeous. I was telling myself I would love to experience that, just to stand in front of it and enjoy the view.

The movie went on with the 2 of them climbing to the top of the mountain. Simon was the leading guy and Joe follows about 100 feet behind him. They were connected with a rope and the rule is, if one of them fall,the other will have the same fate. They took 3 days to just get on top of the mountain. Everything seemed to be going on well. Until they were on their way down.

Joe happened to be the unlucky one in this expedition because he broke his right leg on the way down and he fell off a deep hole inside the mountain that made Simon thought he was dead. So Simon continued his journey back and left Joe in the mountain.

Joe's determination and courage was tested on how he would survive to get out of the inside of a mountain with a broken leg. At this point I was thinking to myself. What is it that I would do given the same situation as Joe had. But I think it is too easy to plan now that I'm watching it in a movie. Something is now swirling in my thought. What would I do now to survive in my own world. The world I'm living in. The daily life I have now and tomorrow's. Joe never gave up in spite of having a broken leg, probably shattered into pieces, alone, cold, with no food or water and most of all, he was getting nowhere. With his condition and his state of mind, he formulated a strategy. Pure survivor instinct. He made his aims little by little, and he gave some time to accomplish his aim. He pushed himself to gain what he aimed for, what he craved for, his safety. He crawled, he hoped with his good leg and fell every time he hopped but even with his excruciating pain he still went on, and on, and on. Until he reached his goal he refused to stop. He gained his strength, for what ever was left, to keep going. It touched me deeply. For one person to be able to help himself to win his own challenges and never stops until he gains more and more, to me that feeling is overwhelming. I want to be able to do that. I want to be able to challenge myself to see how far I can go.

Being alone doesn't mean you are weaker. It means you are stronger. Because being alone means you are independent and that you are ready to commit to life's great challenges without other's help or sympathy. Being hurt doesn't mean you are a loser. It means you are a winner. Because you achieve when others think you would falter. When Joe was alone, he thought of 2 things, either he would die from pathetically waiting for someone to come and get him when nobody knew where he was or he could die on his way out trying to survive. And he decided he would rather die trying. But as he was on his way to get out of the mountain, he realized he was stronger and smarter than he thought he was. So now I feel good about being alone. It makes me feel impressed with myself that for all this time I have won my life because I am independent.

I am looking forward to be able to experience new things in life and I am excited to get to know what is waiting for me in the future. And I hope in every challenges I am to face, I can make it through and come out stronger every time. To be able to do that, and perhaps if I became successful one day, I would be more than pleased to tell my life's story might have been sparked after watching this beautiful true story based movie called 'Touching the Void'