It was July 30th, 2019. A day planned for months in advance, finally here. The crisp morning air hit me as I walked outside from the two-hour-long car ride. Grabbing a backpack as full as my school bag with water, snacks, swimsuits, and towels, I felt almost complete. I seemed to be missing the one most important thing: a friend. 

This was not the first time that my friend and I have ventured to Devil’s Lake State Park, in Baraboo, Wisconsin, so I felt almost as if I was an expert on the land. But I was wrong. Going around the lake for the first time, I never noticed the rocky path that leads up to the tippy top of the hills. Second time around, I see what everyone was talking about and my stress started to kick in. The steepness of the side of the mountain stared me down like my mother does when she is mad. I felt the pressure to climb up it as everyone was pushing through to get up. 

“Let’s go up,” said my friend with a smile on his face. 

I swallowed hard, looking up and back down. I felt my hands getting sweaty and my heart starts to race. Treading up the hill, I felt confident about myself, telling myself, “This isn’t so bad, I’m okay.” Fifty feet higher and I was saying everything but I’m okay. 

My legs shook like a butterfly flaps its wings. I felt myself crying on the inside, trying not to show too much of my emotions. I wonder why I decided to climb these rocks, as I take each and every step with caution, climbing with both my hands and feet. 

We finally get to some flat ground and I feel a sigh of relief until I look and see we are barely halfway up. The process starts over; legs shaking, tears on the inside, climbing with my hands and feet. A brutal seven minutes later I see the ledge. The ledge that ends all of this fear: the top ledge. 

I manage to get a grip and make it over the ledge and hug a tree. I finally did it, I made it to the top. The only thing going through my mind at that time was, “WOW”. What I just overcame right there was my fear of heights, I overcame a fear that has been there for what I believed was my whole life. Overcoming this fear led me to see the best view of my life. As I look over the side of this mountain, I realize that my fear has limited me from seeing nature to its fullest. 

The rest of this little trip was eye-opening to me. The way that nature can be so unknown and beautiful made me feel warm inside. I felt like a kid looking at something new for the first time. I agreed to never let fear get in my way of nature again, I promised myself that I would get out to see the magic that nature produced, the magic that helped me overcome my fear.