I'm on the Top of the World Looking Down on Creation

Below me, I could see Grant Park. The trees were barren.  A thin coat of snow covered the brown grass.  At the far end Buckingham fountain, a Chicago landmark recognized throughout the world, was dry.  Tiny specks, either cars or people, scurried along pathways and roads.  I stood eighty floors above the city and soaked in the sights as if I were soaking up the sun. 

It had taken me six months to get to the top of the AON building in Chicago.  Six months of perspiration. Six months of practice.  Six months of preparation.  Six months of perseverance. Now, on a cold and blustery January morning, I had finally reached the summit.  I had walked up eighty flights of stairs just to enjoy the view.

This was my first tower climb. My heart was still racing from the effort and I could still feel the adrenalin pumping through my limbs. Yet I felt good; and, as I found out later, I did pretty well, placing 145 out of 908 women who competed.  Not bad for a first timer.

The route to the summit hadn’t been easy.  But, I suppose if it had been easy, it would not have been exciting.  As I’ve learned these past few months, nothing worth doing is ever easy.

Twenty minutes earlier, I had been standing on the first floor with my teammates.  My heart had started to race with anticipation.  I hadn't moved a muscle and yet I was already perspiring.  I bounced on my heals, itching to go.  Like a kid strapping herself into a roller coaster, I felt terrified and excited at the same time.  

My friend Erin rolled her eyes at me.  I had talked her into joining me on my crazy mission.  Now, moments before we were about to start, she was dreading the task ahead. “Remind me again why we are doing this.” She said.

“Because we can.” I replied.  Just then, the starter nudged me on the back and I was off. 

I remember the first ten flights.  Look at me, going two at a time! I’m awesome.  Only seventy more to go. Did I just seventy?!  Seventy?! That's insane, I thought. But I kept going.

I remember stopping for a breath on the landing at the forty-first floor.  Gotta keep going, gotta keep going, I puffed.  I jumped back on the stairs and got moving again. 

I remember hearing the sound of cheering from several stories above as I neared seventy-two.  Almost there, almost there, I mumbled under my breath.  The cheers called to me and I followed their sound.

I remember seeing the crowd as I approached the door to flight eighty.  There was music and more cheers.  I wanted to collapse on the floor.  Instead, I held my hands above my head.  “I did it!”

If you had told me a year ago that one day I would race to the top an eighty-story building, I would have told you that you were crazy.  But training for this event has taught me so much about myself. 

It has taught me that so many of my limitations are merely illusions.  It has taught me that “can” and “can’t” are not facts but are choices that I make every day.  It has taught me that I am capable of more than I ever imagined.   Or, as Norman Vincent Peale said, “People become quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things.” 

I’ve learned that I am stronger than I knew.  I’ve learned that I if I set a plan in motion I can see it through.  I’ve learned that hard work pays off.  But the most important thing I’ve learned is that I control my limitations.  I decide which are real and which are imaginary.  I decide which ones I will accept and which I will challenge. 

I decide.

The view was beautiful, as beautiful as I had imagined.  I snapped a mental photo to take with my as a reminder of my victory.  As I turned away from the window, Erin asked.  “How does it feel?”

“Like I am on the top of the world.”




(Note: the two photos are found on http://www.wikipedia.org/ and republished here under the licenses described)