Climbing Mountains

Just before we went into iso (officially) my daughter and I had begun a quest to get a bit fitter. This led to a minor obsession – probably by me and not so much my daughter! So for the first 13 days of iso we walked every day, everywhere. In fact one day we walked to Healesville to post a letter, that was a 7.6 Km round trip.

One day we came up with a goal. I know you hear teachers and parents go on about the importance of goal setting, taking small steps and then reaching the goal…….Our goal was to climb all the mountains that encircle Healesville. 

Now that’s quite a goal. Look around, there are mountains everywhere. Interestingly we had different visions of how we would reach this goal (It’s OK to think differently) My idea was to conquer one mountain and move on to the next one, you know the old phrase “one tree at a time,” I was going with one mountain at a time. Carly (my daughter) thought differently, she wanted us to climb the same mountain over and over until we had perfected it.

We argued long and hard. I raised points like you climb Mt Everest and say “woo hoo” “ good on me, I have achieved my life long goal.” You don’t go back and try the same goal again. While she raised arguments about being your best and aiming to walk faster or climb quicker (fair points I guess). So some days we walked separately – we had different goals. We were Ok with that. We had one big goal that we shared and reaching that goal together was the main focus.

So after weeks of climbing Henderson’s Hill and walking home via Maroondah Parade we decided we were mountain fit! We decided to test the waters,

 Mt Riddell is a 6 km walk with the last 2 km pretty much straight up – look at it, it’s a volcano straight up…… Our first attempt to gauge things was on May 5th,  a Tuesday afternoon. The sun was shining and the weather was perfect. We only had a limited time frame because real life intervened and we had to pick my mum up from the hairdressers. We climber 4 Km and had our first peek at the “hard bit” At this moment Mr Rennick declared Friday the 8th a non - teaching day so we had a window of opportunity, a chance to achieve our first goal.

Friday 8th of May we set off. Excited and anticipating the joy of reaching the top of Mt Riddell. For those of you that have climbed those last two Kilometres you will know how tough it can be. I vision Mrs Mitchell’s long legs pumping up those hills like a demon, sadly I have been “blessed” with very short legs. I suffer from shin splints and old age. I walk on….I start to fight with myself, it hurts, my breathing is getting heavier, 

Carly is starting to get further ahead. I spit out some words like “I have to stop, I can’t do this, you keep going I will get there. She comes to her poor old mums aid, but I have not stopped I start trudging one step at a time, actually I am too scared to stop. I may never start again. I can walk slower taking one step at time – I just need to keep going……we make mini goals like reaching the next tree fern or reaching the next post on the side of the road.

Finally we reach the top. Mt Disappointment I call it, no view, no marching band, just an open paddock and a bench seat that you can’t sit on because of COVID19 restrictions. We made it, our first mountain together. We wander through the bush and relish the smells and sounds and then head home.

Our next goal is Mt Monda it is 8 km's high, on Monday we checked out the first half of the walk. We climbed 4 km and then returned home. We are excited, each day we do our own thing to prepare, sometimes together, sometimes separately. 

Our goal is the same. Hopefully we will find time to complete this goal before school returns but we will get there, we will make it. In our sights are Mt Juliet and then the mother of all mountains, Mt St Leonard, that big sucker that hangs over the town like a night watchman keeping an eye on us all. 

Now the moral to this story, although this is a true story, you may have been able to connect to the theme. Goal setting. Goals are important in order to make your dreams come true. Goals can be reached in different ways even if the end goal is the same.  Formulas for goal setting can be different and specific to each individual, although the journey is different the destination is the same. This is like Year 12, whether you are a VCAL or VCE student your goal is the same, to complete Year 12. The year has been tough and obstacles have been put in your way, these will be different for each of you. The goal is still the same. To climb mountains!

Gabby Plunkett