Brea Jones

The goal for my fourth speech at Toastmasters is “How to Say It”

The objectives are:

• Choose words and grammar which communicate clearly.
• Choose words and grammar which appeal to the senses.
• Eliminate jargon.

Below is the prepared speech:

Sometimes I want to quit.
Sometimes I want to give up.
Sometimes I put myself in situations where I KNOW I will fail.
Have you ever done that?

I had one of those days earlier this summer. I had been backpacking for three days with 30 pounds on my back. My favorite thing about backpacking is the [INHALE] fresh air of the mountains. But this trail is so busy it smells more like an outhouse than wilderness, I literally had to carry a bag of my own human waste. I can hardly sleep, I don’t want to eat, and the air is so thin and dry, I wake up with a nose bleed in the morning.

Why would I do this to myself?

Four weeks earlier, my partner and I decidedto hike half dome. I’m terribly afraid of heights, and it is an infamously exhausting 17-mile march uphill that most people do in one day.  I came up with a plan to get fit in time for this hike. I was to use the stairmaster at my gym three days a week for an hour. So the first day, I do 30 minutes. Next week, I manage 10. The final week before the trip, I walk down to the gym and instead of walking inside, I decide to have a cheeseburger.

Why would I do this to myself?

After this rigorous preparation, we discover we can get permits for Mount Whitney instead. Half Dome is 8,800 feet elevation. The parking lot of Whitney is 8,800 feet. Mount Whitney is the highest peak in the continental U.S. — 14, 497 feet. halfway up to where an airplane flies. So we wake up early and drive from sea level, arriving at the trailhead just in time to pick up the bear canister that will hold our food for the next several days and the wag bags that will hold our … you know. The ranger warns us that bears have been very active in the area around dusk — ripping off a backpack from a man earlier that week. It’s already 6 p.m. before we head into the wilderness.

Why would I do this to myself?

The first couple of days we try to acclimate. We hike only a few miles in, rest, try to eat, try to get used to the elevation. By the third day, we arrive at the last camp before the summit. At 12,000 feet, I’ve never seen the sky so close. We’re past the trees, past the lakes, and all you see is white rock. All you taste are the power bars and powdered gatorade that passes your lips every few hours. Not because you’re hungry but because a 60-year-old man you passed on the trail tells you altitude sickness will get you if you don’t eat every time you stop. We try to sleep, but the wind howls across the granite moonscape rocking the tent.

Why would I do this to myself?

After the sun rises, it’s time to begin the ascent. When you hike up mountains, you go in a zigzag because it’s so steep. After 99 switchbacks, we arrive at “Cloud’s Rest,” which has a beautiful view. But I was done. I wanted to quit, but then I looked down at how far I’ve come, and I look up and see the top of the world, and I decide to keep going.

I don’t look up or down anymore, I just take it one step at a time.

There comes a point where it is easier to keep going than to stop. In physics they call it inertia and momentum.

Other people call it the 80/20 rule — everything is 80% mental and only 20% physical.

I call it life.

I do it because challenge is what makes life worth living. Growth only happens when we get out of our comfort zones. When we challenge ourselves. When we do things we never thought possible.

I did something I never believed I could do. I climbed my mountain — and I know you can climb yours.

Just take it one step at a time.