The "Bad" Is Something Good

During one of my last weekends traveling the different landscapes of Europe, I decided to spend it at a small town called Bad Gastein about two hours outside of Salzburg, Austria. There, some friends and I decided to climb one of the biggest mountains there, hopefully all the way to the top. I'll admit that I am not a huge hiker fan, but that day I pushed myself to the extreme. I needed to conquer the mountain as self-vindication. Everytime I wanted to give up, I told myself that I could do it and pushed on further. We spent all day climbing that mountain. In some aspect, it also gave me time to think. Since I'm always thinking, this long climb helped me put things into perspective. I was to be leaving for home in one week and I was unsure how things would be with friends and family. I was apprehensive about my magazine internship awaiting me back home. Most of all, I didn't know how I would handle leaving all of my new friends and family here in Salzburg. But instead of dwelling on that, I focused on my climb. I had to do this for myself. We finally made it to the top and the view was just incredible. Breathtaking. It was like nothing I had seen before and didn't even compare to any previous pictures of the mountains I had taken. The overwhelming feeling of joy, of accomplishment swelled inside of me. I had done it. The attached pictures show the amazing Alps that surrounded me. I also took a picture of me looking down the side of the mountain...possibly looking back at my past, but ready for my future.