If you follow my Facebook or Instagram stories, you may have noticed my new hobby of rock climbing. I have another post detailing my fitness journey, but I wanted to take this one to discuss the less visible parts of the sport: the falls, the blisters, and the mistakes.
I started rock climbing in August of 2023, but only began to seriously train for it over the past year. Rock climbing came to me out of sheer convenience-- my dad often joked that it was "not on my yearly bingo card". And it's true. The climbing gym was the closest gym to my apartment, and they did have an area in the back with a Stairmaster and stationary bike if I never built up the courage to climb.
But I did.
It took me so long to move past my fear, and even longer to build up the strength and fitness needed to actually scale up the wall. The sheer amount of upper body strength I have developed shocks even me. I went from a woman who needed to catch her breath after walking a block or two, to a teacher who can easily carry two toddlers across the play yard.
About a year ago, I started posting videos of my climbing successes to my Instagram and Facebook stories. I would receive kind words and impressed reactions, and it felt good. I liked being able to share a piece of my life with my social media community, especially a piece I had worked so dang hard to accomplish.
I don't post nearly as often anymore, even though I am still very consistently climbing at the gym and getting in workouts every couple of days. Which leads me to the title of this post-- the ways I still come up short. The many times, every session, when I'm falling off the walls.
