I’ve gotten a little ahead of myself and need to go back to the beginning. As they say on TV, “Last week on the High Road”…big goal…many options…trek to Everest Base Camp (EBC). Okay, we’re caught up.
Once I made the decision to go to EBC, I didn’t tell anyone for a few days. I guess I wasn’t sure if this was real. Or perhaps, if I had really committed to it. But eventually, I had to start telling people as I had to get time off of work, explain my sudden interest in all things Everest and I just can’t keep a secret.
The night I decided to “test drive” this decision one of my good friends invited me to get together with she and some of her friends in New York City. We were at an Upper East Side haunt having a great time when I was asked, “So what’s new with you?” “Not much,” I said, “I’m planning a trip to Mount Everest Base Camp.” (Of course, that’s not exactly how the conversation went, but you get my drift.) After several minutes of questions ranging from “Are you crazy?” to “Exactly where is Everest?” to “People die on Mount Everest, are you sure?” one of her friends walked in.
I was introduced not as the online publisher who just moved back East from California, but as the one who was going to Mount Everest. She looked at me and said, “That’s cool, my sister dated a Sherpa for a while,” and sauntered off to the bar. Only in New York.