Defining Happy

I’m ready. Let’s go!

It is 5:30 pm local time and tomorrow morning I leave to conquer the tallest mountain in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro.  I’m not even going to lie, I woke up at 2 am  nervous as heck at the thought of taking on this huge beast.  My nerves were so shaken up that I had to get up and “use the bathroom”.  This was actually a pro since my system had taken a leave of absence since the safari. 

I had always known and have spoken about this several times on this blog that I wanted to climb a mountain somewhere along this journey.  The first choice was Mount Everest (Base Camp) while I was making my way through Asia but by the time I was ready to head to Nepal it wasn’t the right season for trekking. After my minor fiasco at the orphanage I was so ready to leave Tanzania that I had chucked my plans of climbing here and vowed to do a victory climb over somebodies mountain at the end of my journey next year.  That was until I thought long and hard about the symbolic reasoning behind my wanting to climb a mountain in the first place. Also, the fact that I will never EVER EVER NEVER be in Tanzania again was enough to change my mind. This is a once in a life time opportunity and I-BE-DAMNED (you guys know I like saying that) if I miss out on it.

I’m not doing this because I’m an avid hiker. In fact, the first time I can recall ever “hiking” anywhere was in Malaysia a few months ago.  My “Defining Happy” journey was meant to heal and renew my mind, body, and soul.  Climbing up this mountain will definitely be one of the most difficult things I have ever done as was facing my molestation and other family issues head and putting in the work to deal and heal this past year.  Speaking from experience…my loving advice to you all is to “Let go”.  I had wasted so long carrying around my old baggage and didn’t even realize it was the reason why I felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders. In the physical sense I’m giving any heavy bags to the porters while I concentrate completely on reaching the top of this mountain. In the spiritual sense I’m giving any remaining baggage over to God so I can reach that summit where I am completely Happy and free.

Reaching the top of this mountain will be beyond victorious because that would mean that all the tough and rocky terrain will be behind me. It will still be a part of my whole Kilimanjaro experience but the most important piece will be persevering through whatever challenges came my way to reach that peak and coming down on the other end a brand new person (and a non-dead person 😉 ).  Just as I have said before, although what happened to me is in the past. Granted it is still a part of who I am but what I want to point out is that it is NOT the most important piece and will never take a front seat in my life again.

The climb up the Machame Route of Kilimanjaro will take 5 days to ascend to the summit and 1 extra day to descend.  Although I know God has my back, sides, and front a few extra prayers and good vibrations from you all wouldn’t hurt.  See you all on November 6th…Be well my friends!

Peace and Blessings,

Miss Venus