My mind went back to a statement from a street performer in Cape Town the previous day: “Check this out, I’m about to be amazing!” At the time I had joked about using his catch phrase for my climbing, but I hadn’t really meant it because this whole time I’d been so focused on the opposite: staying humble, no egos allowed.

What if that was the kind of energy I needed right now though? What if there was something in between my meek humility on this trip and the toxic rage from my youth? The paradigm shifted a little more. Why not try a little reckless egotism? It’s just a form of belief, after all, and didn’t that stranger’s bravado mirror the exact kind of belief I’d once wielded like a weapon? Maybe he had stumbled across the alchemical gold without even realizing it.

“I’m about to be amazing,” a shy voice whispered in my head as I pulled off the ground and the world around me faded away, leaving just the void of a perfect crack stretching out before me into the abyss.

I love reading Goris's posts on climbing. She’s constantly traveling to amazing places and then writes about them in a way that makes me super envious. Why can’t I write like this?

Even if you're not a climber, you'll probably find her writeup engaging. And if you are a climber, you'll want to read it because you'll certainly learn a thing or two.