Base Camp Everest, to the Summit; I did it!!!

I stand, not a word is spoken, I avoid their eyes as I leave the security of those around me. I have mentally prepared myself for this moment, this ascent, many times over. Althought the light is dim I can see "the summit".The trek; initially it starts out well, then I feel each step becoming heavier, from one, one thousand pound footstep to another, my pride will not allow me to turn back, I have come so far. Continuing, my peripheral vision is starting to close; tunnel vision, all I see is what lies ahead. I feel each heartbeat, stepping between each reverberation to save my strength, the Lion Dance Drum beat is nothing compared to the pounding within. As I progress, the lack of oxygen is starting to pull at my lungs, searing and seizing with each breath. I try to calculate the distance, but my senses are starting to fade, yet my soul screams "you can do this", I cannot feel, smell, sound starts to become fictional, my vision blurs, yet I continue. Time has become irrelevent, I feel I need to stop, but stopping would mean failure. After many uncountable steps the journey is complete, I stand at "the summit", and in a split second of thought I realize I'm vulnerable,alone, imploding, sweating with nervousness, my head turns, our eyes meet and with all the confidence of a man standing on the far right of the evolution chart, I ask, "would you like to dance"? She say's, "sure" and in my minds eye I plunge my flag of conquest into "my Mount Everest". As we went around on the dance floor we both laughed at my quest, "what if I would have said no" she says"? Wouldn't have mattered, my success was in the asking"! As I returned to base(my table), my children gave me the "way to go Dad, didn't think you had it in you" kudos, I even had to grin myself. One of my biggest mountains, my "Mount Everest" is, I've always had trouble walking up to an unknown woman and asking her to dance, but there you go, considering I have the social skills of a a stump, anythings doable with a bit of courage. Robert Tymchuk.