"I recently returned from a trek to Everest Base Camp in Nepal"
Based on a sample of responses I've had to that statement in recent weeks, you might have thought one or more of the following:
Wow, what a bucket-list tick off!
Well done, what’s your next big trip?
Didn’t you find Nepal amazing?
You’re crazy; why would you want to do something like that?
Which is my summary of the top four reactions I've had when people hear my opening statement.
Bucket List?
Everyone assumes that going to Everest Base Camp was a long held goal of mine. That’s a fair enough assumption, but that wasn’t in fact my motivation. I’m completely fine with the trekking/tramping in New Zealand and there are many experiences that I have yet to have here, so it wasn’t “on my list”. Actually I don’t really have a list. I went simply because one of my tramping buddies wanted to (it was on his list) and asked me if I would go with him. When he suggested it, my first thought was “hmm that seems hard, don’t know if I can do it but I’m willing to give it a go!” There were quite a few steps after that involving encouragement from others I care about, and quite a bit of preparation both physically and otherwise before we went, but the decision to go was made in a heartbeat.
Once that decision was made, there was never any other thought than that we would get there. We set the goal, learned what we needed to do to, made our preparations and went for it. There were plenty of problems along the way (for example my baggage didn’t arrive with me in Kathmandu), but we found solutions and didn’t let those problems become excuses for failure. We met plenty of other people who were less prepared but who toughed it out and got there, and we also met some that failed to get there, mostly because they lost heart and gave up.
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