I like to start the year off above the clouds if possible.  There isn’t enough elevation in Southern Thailand to actually get above the clouds but there is one hell of a climb that I’ve had my eye on for a while. 

I thought if Neena can do something so brave to end her year, I can do something brave to start mine.

The climb is 4 to 6 hours, 250 meters up....that’s almost 3 football fields stacked on top of each other lengthwise...(send all memes about Americans refusing to measure with the metric system)

I arrived at the bottom of the rock face to meet Rose, our guide who created this route, along with 4 other group members. The route is part via ferrata, part on belay, part rappelling, part bouldering. If you have experience in none of those things, it really makes sense to just try all of them...in one day...on the highest rock in sight.

You are beginner rock climber? said Rose.

Yes, WAIT, no. Beginner as in today I will begin rock climbing. 2025. We can do this!

Ok ka, you are strong, you want to go up high?

I’m strong, I want to go up high.

You are not scared?

I’m terrified. (We can do this?)

The climb was harder for me than others who had climbing experience, and scarier too. But we all got to the same place.

I didn’t have the muscle memory to propel myself upward, the foundational skills to gauge where to take my next hold, or the steadiness to calm my heart and sweaty hands.

Those things only come from experience. And I didn’t really have enough of it (or …any).

It will be like this for you too munchkins, getting to the next place you’re going in life. I know you know that. You have to build a way where one does not exist yet. Like Rose did with this cliff. Like I'm doing with Make Our Day.

There wasn’t a way up this cliff before Rose got here. She built the way over years and years.

Rose went first. She said when she finally reached this point, which she now calls her office, she just cried and cried. Of course. What an amazing accomplishment that now allows others to follow in her footsteps.

That’s you munchkins. You’re going first so others can follow behind you. And like Rose was a guide for me today, I can guide you and give you hope when you’re losing yours, but I can’t do any of those hardest, scariest parts for you.

2025 is going to get hard and it’s going to get scary, but we can do this!

You can cry as much as you want, be it from happiness that you completed something hard or frustration that you aren’t there yet.

I certainly did.

I love love love you munchkins.

Happy New Year from the hardest climb yet.

Love, Teacher Katie

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