Enjoy The Climb

“I can almost see it that dream I’m dreaming

but there's a voice inside my head saying

you'll never reach it

Every step I'm taking

every move I make feels

lost with no direction

my faith is shaking

But I gotta keep trying

gotta keep my head held high

There's always gonna be another mountain

I'm always gonna wanna make it move

always gonna be an uphill battle

sometimes I'm gonna have to lose

Ain't about how fast I get there

ain't about what's waiting on the other side

it's the climb”


I wrote these lyrics to “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus on my son’s Facebook wall last year, only to have him immediately delete them and threaten to delete me as a friend…. Embarrassing to him, to say the least, but when I heard this song, I immediately thought of him and the struggles he was facing in his first year of university and I wanted him to know that I was thinking of him. Not knowing what he wanted to do, trying to make a career choice, how many classes to take, what classes to take, where to live, how to get by on very little money, how to effectively manage his time…. I told him that there would always be mountains in his life and decisions that he had to make on his own. Some would be just hills and easy to reach the top and others would be monumental and take more thought and time to reach a decision.

As a Mother, this is very difficult for me to watch. We want what is best for our kids, we want life to be easy & enjoyable. We don’t want them to suffer or experience hardship or heartache and we certainly don’t want them to fail. But, in order to succeed you must fail, so that you know what not to do the next time. I wanted him to enjoy this climb, to make friendships that would last a lifetime, to learn lessons he would never forget and to approach each day with enthusiasm.
Most of our long-remembered life’s lessons are learned through experiences from difficult journeys or decisions. Deciding to go to university was a big decision for him as he doesn’t like school, in fact he hates it! After his first week in Kindergarten I asked him “how is school?”, “I hate school” he said… nothing has changed. He always did enough to get through and graduated from high school only to realize that most of his career choices required a post secondary degree… so off he went to obtain a 4 year undergraduate degree at the University of Lethbridge.

Today he officially completed his second year of university and I am anxious to have him home for the summer. He is still struggling with a career choice, but has made it his mission to continue and finish with a degree even if it takes him more than 4 years. The degree is important to him to prove that he can climb the mountain and reach the top. As for the career choice; how many of us actually work in the field that we obtained our degree! I am very proud of him and I hope he is enjoying the climb. After all, a good climb can be the most memorable part of reaching the top!

This photo was taken the day we moved him and his truck load of belongings to Lethbridge…. and, he did have a smile on his face!