16/09/24: An Odyssey, Day 12: Krofong
I don't know if it is the accumulating fatigue, or whether today was a genuinely hard day, but my feet have blisters, and my legs have an unbearable pain in them.
Maybe I've pulled a muscle, because today was only 24 kilometers, and we've done days like this before on the trek. Or maybe it's the nearing of the end of the trip that's bringing back all of this fatigue.
I took a glacial bath when we got to camp, because it seemed like all my muscles were going to burn, and then I crashed, almost missing dinner in the process.
I have a ton of complicated emotions as this trip draws to a close. I think there's a lot of grief — I don't get to do this often. I have new friends, Albert and Alberto may even come to the office on Friday. But saying goodbye to K2, to this camp life that I had gotten used to, to expecting wonder everyday, to late nights under the stars and the full moon, to deep conversations about purpose and conviction with Alberto, or lighter conversations about music with Albert — it's hard, to draw all of this to a close.
I got to live another life. I went and touched a God of a mountain. I walked till I felt I would collapse — and then I walked some more.
This odyssey has been new and unexpected and wonderful in so many ways.
Where do I go from here?
I'm going to take risks — this much I know.
I'm going to believe more so in what the voice inside me tells me to do.
I'm going to go to the top of mountains — where my lungs scream for air — and I'm going to cherish this freedom, because something tells me that freedom is a gift.
And like all gifts, like all great journeys, it is temporary.
And all that is temporary is wonderful.
And it must come to and end.