Author: wildboom

New Year, New Me

wildboom

It’s been an odd New Year for me. Typically this is the time of year when I get all sentimental and I lament on all the things that have happened through the past year. I really like doing that because of the gratitude for the past year and excitement for the upcoming year it produces. This year, however, I went to bed at 11:30pm and I didn’t do a lot of reflecting. I guess this is me getting to it now.

This also isn’t a post to talk about my resolutions, though I do have a couple (retirement savings, read a book each month), but rather a post to talk about the lessons and mindset I learned in the past year that I will carry into the next year. Throughout the pandemic, most people have gotten pretty used to having their plans canceled or changed and I am no different. At times it has been pretty disheartening, but now standing on the other side of a new year I can see all the great things that God has done in my life despite the many failures of my own plans. It reminds me of Proverbs 19:21, “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” That verse is a huge comfort to me and it is probably the biggest lesson I’ve learned in this past year.

That lesson was really cemented on my trip to Peru this past August. On Instagram, I posted a picture of me at Machu Picchu and this was the caption I put:

“This past year has not been at all what I thought it would be. I’ve had opportunities taken from me and failure has plagued the opportunities I did have. I’ve struggled to feel any semblance of progress in any aspect of where I thought I wanted my life to go. About two months ago I wrote a list of five goals I wanted to accomplish in the coming years. Already three of those goals probably won’t happen.

Nothing ever works out as expected. However, sometimes what happens instead is the good stuff. This trip has been a big perspective shift for me and really it has helped me rediscover the gratitude I have been lacking recently. God has been unbelievably good to me, even throughout this past year, and this picture is just one example of the unexpected good stuff.”

I think the moral of my story for 2021 can be well summarized by the Chinese proverb below:

“Sāi Wēng lived on the border and he raised horses for a living. One day, he lost one of his prized horses. After hearing of the misfortune, his neighbor felt sorry for him and came to comfort him. But Sāi Wēng simply asked, “How could we know it is not a good thing for me?”

After a while, the lost horse returned and with another beautiful horse. The neighbor came over again and congratulated Sāi Wēng on his good fortune. But Sāi Wēng simply asked, “How could we know it is not a bad thing for me?”

One day, his son went out for a ride with the new horse. He was violently thrown from the horse and broke his leg. The neighbors once again expressed their condolences to Sāi Wēng, but Sāi Wēng simply said, “How could we know it is not a good thing for me?” One year later, the Emperor’s army arrived at the village to recruit all able-bodied men to fight in the war. Because of his injury, Sāi Wēng’s son could not go off to war, and was spared from certain death.“

When I look at the experiences in my life in isolation they may appear black and white as either a good or a bad thing, but how many times have bad things led to things so much brighter than the good we were hoping for in the first place? The answer in my life is almost always. In my 2020 “Be on the Road” post I reflected on the last decade as I started 2020. In that post, you can see how the Lord’s purpose prevailed and His plans turned out so much greater and more fulfilling than my own plans ever could have! The point is that things don’t happen in isolation. Everything is connected in this life and you never know how one seemingly insignificant thing could affect everything.

  • The highest peak in Texas!

Another thing I realized in the past year with so many plans not coming to fruition was the importance of still living your life. You have to find things that make you feel alive! A lot of things are made more difficult because of Covid, but you have to find alternative things to do. What you can’t do is wait and do things that make you feel alive later. You never know if later will come. For me, nature is always open. Climbing mountains and exploring is the outlet for my adventurous spirit. The last thing I want is to be retired finally ready to do the things I’ve always wanted just to find out I’m too old to learn a new sport, to climb that mountain, or to go skiing in the Alps. Life is best lived with some urgency. If you want to do something do it now because you never know if you’ll get another opportunity.

The current job training I’m at is very physically demanding and an injury could mean that you will be sent home or pushed back and stuck here in this training environment longer. To a lot of people that means taking it easy and not taking any risks. I can’t argue with that and I completely understand that choice, but just like the proverb with the Chinese farmer, you never know what will happen. If I had stopped practicing jiu-jitsu, something that gives me immense joy, just because I was going to training soon I would have missed out on so much growth and improvement. The work training ended up getting delayed three times. If I had stopped jiu jitsu when I was supposed to start the first time I would have missed months of something I loved for nothing. Now, while I’m here training, I have an opportunity to explore parts of the country I’ve never seen before. I went skiing on an actual mountain for the first time in my life and it was amazing! I took fewer risks than I normally would have, but that still didn’t stop me from flying down the mountain with a giant grin on my face and falling a couple of times. If I didn’t do this now, I probably never would have the opportunity again. I have some big long-term Army things coming up in the future shortly after I finish work training here. If I had that timid conservative attitude about getting hurt it would be cumulatively two years before I would be able to do the things I want to do. To me, that’s not what life is for and it’s not living.

This upcoming year for me is about living life with urgency and enjoying every moment I can. Life moves fast and you never know how much time you really have. It’s also about embracing the “good” and the “bad” because you never truly know the impact those moments have in your life. The only thing I do know is that it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails!

New Year, New Me

What I’m Thankful For

wildboom

Today is Thanksgiving and I have a lot to be thankful for! Currently, I’m out of Michigan away at some government training. I’ll be here until I graduate in April. After graduation, I’ll be moving to Phoenix where I’ll be working. I’m very thankful for the job opportunity and for Phoenix over some worse locations I could have gotten! The rest of the post will be catching up with what I’ve been up to and what I’m thankful for.

I’m thankful for the beauty of our country and of my home state Michigan. Now that I’m away, I have the opportunity to appreciate the beauty of other parts of the country. However, before I left I made a fall colors trip to the Upper Peninsula. There was this train bridge off in the woods near Negaunee, MI that I’ve always wanted to explore so I hiked out there to see how the colors were. I was a little early, but it is still an awesome spot and I’m glad I got to check it out before I leave Michigan for a while.

I’m also super thankful for my family! It’s a bummer to be away while they gather for Thanksgiving, but I know that they are supportive of what I’m doing and I know I’ll be seeing them soon in the future. They have been so helpful in helping me move all of my stuff and storing it while I’m at training. My dad will deliver my truck to me here at training soon as well. I’m especially thankful that I was able to make it to meet and witness my newest niece, Claire’s, baptism in Virginia before I headed to training.

Since my time in Michigan is over, for now, my military career is up in the air. It will come down to where I think God can use me best. I am blessed to have many opportunities, and for now, I am deciding between staying with my current unit for a potential deployment or transferring to the Reserves or National Guard in Arizona. Lots to contemplate. All I know for now is that it has been an absolute honor to be a platoon leader. I have learned so much about leadership and about myself in the two years I have been leading my platoon. Even if this is just temporary and I will come back to lead them in the future, I am very thankful for all the men I have worked with that have helped me grow and develop into the leader I am today.

I’m so thankful for the sport of jiu-jitsu and the life lessons and friends it has given me. At my last class, I was surprised with a promotion to purple belt. Coach Carl said some nice things about me and then he asked me if I had anything to say. I hadn’t planned anything, but it was one of those moments where everything comes from the heart. I gave a speech with my voice quivering with emotion as I spoke and at the end, Coach was choked up and several people in the class were crying. That’s how much this gym and the people there mean to me. I am looking forward to dropping back in when I’m in town.

Lastly, I’m so thankful especially for two of the guys above (both closest to me). Wyatt and Aaron have been my roommates for the last three years and have dealt with me leaving for 6 months at a time on multiple occasions. They have managed everything at the house without any complaints. We had so many good times camping, watching sports, going to bars, playing cards, and just chilling around talking about life or watching movies. Leaving them feels like it’s the end of an era.

Overall, I am incredibly blessed! God has been so good to me. Covid hasn’t been easy for anyone, but the people that have been there for me during this time have been such a blessing. I’m excited to finally start moving forward into a new chapter and I’m sure I’ll the people from this closing chapter will be reappearing in the next! God bless!

What I’m Thankful For

PERU Part 2: Huaraz and Huascaran National Park

wildboom

From Cusco, I flew back to Lima and then spent 8 hours on a bus to get to Huaraz, the base for exploring Huascaran National Park. I settled into a hostel and the next day we spent the day on an acclimation hike to Lake Churup which was 14,600 ft high. I started to get slightly lightheaded toward the end of the hike, but I didn’t have a headache or anything like that. Well, it wasn’t until later back in Huaraz that my headache started to surface. It actually turned into a pretty bad headache by the time I was ready to go to bed. I made some coca leave tea and then fell asleep instantly.

I woke up and felt really good. No headache. I continued hydrating to help combat any more elevation sickness. My hiking group came and picked me up in a big passenger van early in the morning and we drove for several hours through rocky bumpy terrain while I had to pee so badly from hydrating. Eventually, we made it to the beginning of our journey. The van dropped us off around lunch and we ate and then started about 5 hours of climbing. I had a lip of chewed coca leaves in for the whole climb because that is apparently what the locals (and Incans) have used for elevation sickness for hundreds of years. The weather was good and the climbing wasn’t too bad, but I learned a lot about elevation sickness during this first leg.

We finally made it to our first base camp. It was right on the edge of the snow line and let me tell you, I had a screaming headache! I really was miserable so much so that I thought I would have to tell the guides I couldn’t go on. But I just sat there all light-headed and stupid with a lip full of coca leaves and did my best to try and control my breathing. Not being active and just being able to focus on my breathing actually helped a decent amount and I was able to calm myself enough to figure out a couple of things. At the elevation level my lungs don’t know how much they should be working so I have to make sure that they are working more by manually breathing deeper. I also learned when eating that it is super hard to stay at a tolerable elevation sickness level when you have to stop breathing to chew. So eating was a miserable slow experience. After every bite, I would take a couple of deep breathes to maintain my sickness level and to ensure it didn’t go any further.

During that first real hike at elevation, I realized that I could feel the elevation sickness creeping on and if I just controlled my exertion level enough I could keep the levels from getting to a life-threatening, need to stop, level. And let me tell you just sitting there with a throbbing headache in both temples and at the base of your neck just beating 100mph it’s a scary thing and I realized early it wasn’t about me being a baby, but about the consequences of long term cerebral damage. I was not optimistic that I would make it much further. We had our tents set up and I eventually got to sleep and that was nice. I slept pretty soundly actually. I said a prayer hoping that the sleep at elevation would help lessen the elevation sickness.

After that first morning, I didn’t feel good at all. I had hoped that a night of sleep at elevation would do good to help me adjust, but I almost felt worse after the sleep. The lesson I learned here was that when sleeping I am unable to make sure I am manually breathing deeper than I think I need to. Instead, I breathed at a normal level and that didn’t get my brain enough oxygen. I looked really bad and the guides used an oximeter to test my blood oxygen level. The meter read 80% which I now know means if I was at a hospital they would put me on oxygen. Up there I had no context and the guide said, “I think it’s okay” in a Spanish accent and so I kept going. Before that, I was considering telling them I couldn’t go on, but I just kept forcing myself to take deep breaths.

Surprisingly it actually felt easier to maintain my elevation sickness level and stop it from encroaching into dangerous levels on the second day. It helped that it was only a 4-hour hike of 800 meters so I’m sure that helped. However, I did get very tired using the crampons and ice picks though because I was so inefficient with them. I really didn’t enjoy the technical portions of the hike because it was difficult and foreign. Under intense elevation sickness is not the most conducive environment to learn new skills. Also, it felt like we would hike up a snow crest and I would be excited to get to camp, but every time there was another even bigger crest before our destination. Eventually, we finally go to our camping spot. I was, again, was miserable when we got there. I’m sure the oxygen levels in my brain were the main cause but an intense sunburn couldn’t have helped.

We had dinner and I continued my nightly ritual of starring out at the mountains and manually taking deep breaths until my headache relegated enough for me to focus on other things like eating or unpacking my things. After dinner, I continued starring and breathing. The plan was to wake up at 1 am to begin the push to the summit. The guides would wake up early and check the weather conditions to see if it was feasible. I contemplated staying up all night just breathing intentionally to ensure that my head would be good for the last push and additional elevation.

The guides deemed the weather too bad at first so we reassessed every half hour for about an hour or so until they officially canceled the summit attempt. I have to say I wasn’t that upset. I had my doubts I would have been able to make it with my head regardless. This way I also got to get some sleep as well. In the morning I felt decent and I had the guide take some pictures of me with the mountains in the background. The picture above shows the summit of Huascaran which is the tallest mountain in the tropics in the whole world. It stands at 22,205ft. It is also the mountain in the Paramount Picture’s logo. My journey, however, ended at just a little over 18,000ft. Chopicalqui, the mountain we were attempting to climb, is 20,846ft high.

We started our descent down and we decided to go even deeper into the valley than the original plan just to get out some of the weather that caused us to cancel our summit attempt in the first place. The climb down was actually more technical than the climb up based on the route we chose and we ended up on a patch of really steep ice that required climbing down backward with full use of ice axes and crampons. I actually slipped and ended up falling down the edge of the ice wall until Alex, my climbing mate, dug in with his ice ax and stopped me from falling. I’m glad he was experienced and alert otherwise my fall could have been much worse and I could have dragged others down with me. I ended up with some scrapes on my arms since I was only in a T-shirt at the time. Climbing down like that felt like an eternity and I honestly wondered if I was strong enough to hold on and complete the whole thing. I was exhausted, but when there isn’t a choice you usually are strong enough.

We eventually made it to the rocks where we took our crampons and harness off. We grabbed the gear we left at the first base camp and changed into our hiking boots or basketball shoes if you’re me. It was so nice to not have to worry about slipping on ice, but now I realized how bad going down hurt my knees. Eventually, we were down into the valley where we had dinner and camped the night.

In the morning we had breakfast and packed up the tents. It is incredible how much better I felt after sleeping the night at a lower elevation. It’s funny that lower elevation now meant something still over 14,000 ft. If I were to do something like this again I am definitely going to spend more time acclimating so I can feel that good at 14,000 ft when I start the climb rather than on the backend. Anyways we made it back down to the road and ate some lunch on the last day and the van came by to pick us up. After a couple of hours ride back, with some pit stops for lake views and ice cream, I was back at the rental place returning my gear. A hot shower after that adventure felt so good. For dinner, I bought myself two steaks, and then I went to bed early. The next day I took an easy day and ate some good street food and went to a spa and relaxed in a eucalyptus sauna with a buddy from the hostel.

Now that you have read this whole mess and seen most of the pictures you can watch this video of the mountain climbing experience. Fewer details, but better views in the video: https://photos.app.goo.gl/WcNUqWnHaHmws7Rm7

…and that’s a wrap on my Peru trip. It was an incredible experience and it was so nice to get back out in the world enjoying God’s creation. I hope you enjoyed hearing about it! God bless!

PERU Part 2: Huaraz and Huascaran National Park