Oram Outside

Waking up at 5am, packing my newly bought climbing gear, and climbing in the back of Colbey’s truck was an odd morning. I kept feeling like shouldn’t be awake yet, let alone be heading to City of Rocks for rock climbing at the end on November. Looking out the backseat window I felt the tightness in my upper back that reminded me that I’m not 16 anymore.

This morning was the result of Connor’s new found hobby, climbing. My friend from nursing school, Coleby, and his girlfriend, Joni, had encouraged Connor to try climbing on the indoor wall on campus and his was hooked. Though climbing isn’t my thing, I’ve been supportive and tagged along for some of the evening climbing sessions. On one Wednesday evening, the invite to City of Rocks was proposed and the plan was hatched that we would make a day trip to climb some routes before winter really set in.

This past summer I came to the realization that I lived a very comfortable lifestyle, one where I would turn down certain activities if it meant too much effort or discomfort. Backpacking, mountain biking, running, anything that required too much effort seemed unappealing. I was more frequently staying home scrolling social media, playing video games or reading on my days off.

This trip was very much outside of my comfort zone. When Connor and I first agree to the trip I instantly felt internal opposition. I thought of having to wake up early, having to buy my own climbing gear, the long drive there, the cold, the fear of climbing. Luckily there was some peer pressure from Connor for me to not back out.

There is something rewarding about hitting the road before the sun comes up. Getting to enjoy every phase for the sunrise I realized the colors and light right before and after the sunrise were just as grand as the sunrise itself. Noah Kahan and Hozier played through the speakers as I debated whether I was deaf or if the music I was just loud enough that I couldn’t comprehend anything hat Colbey and Joni were saying in the front seat.

As we drove the final stretch of dirt road into City of Rocks, the dread returned. There was no way out now. I thought about feigning a hurt back, allowing myself to enjoy the day safely from the ground. I didn’t want to chicken out, but I was cold, tired, and outside of my comfort zone.

With the perfect combination of healthy peer pressure and personal pride, I found myself on the wall. Braving the cold wind and new difficulty of rock climbing outside as compared to indoors, I was proud to complete the first route and also grateful to be on the ground bundling back into my warm coat.

It was rewarding to accomplish a difficult physical task. Recently, there has been plenty of difficult emotional, intellectual and professional tasks that I’ve worked through, but these don’t seem to have the same instant or obvious reward. I have opted out of accepting or seeking out difficult physical tasks. This might be out of laziness, or convincing myself that I don’t have anything that I need to prove.

As I’ve achieved so much recently in my professional and academic life, I am seeing to benefit of continually pushing myself to do things outside of my comfort zone. I do not need train for an Iron Man or climb Mt. Everest, but I do need to push myself to do things that cause myself to stretch and try.

Getting out of my comfort zone might not always look like clinging the side of a massive rock while my fingers are going numb from the cold. It might not have to repeated exclamations of “nice” with every move, or “you’re killing it”, or “nice cock”! Sadly, it won’t always be Coleby yelling up to Connor “when it gets rowdy, say ‘howdy’”, which Connor instantly yells “HOWDY!”. But getting outside of my comfort zone will allow opportunities to grow, learn, prove to myself that I can accomplish hard things.