The Last in Line: Slow Down
Quickly enough after we started hiking, she stopped, put down her backpack and said: “I’m going back, I cannot do this”.
While working in the Panama Canal in 2016, my friend Hans organized his yearly trip to Volcan Baru and I joined a group of 15 people. Volcan Baru is the highest mountain in Panama, with 3475 meters (11401 feet) above sea level and it can take from 6-10 hours; depends a lot on your group.
Being a fairly experienced hiker, I quickly grew my expectations on how fast I was gonna go and how I wanted to be the first one to get to the summit and how much I did not want to be stuck hiking for more hours than necessary. Between all, I also knew I had to stay with the group and I was not gonna go ahead by myself.
One group member immediately stood out, the last in line, she had joined the past 2 years to the same trip and could not make it pass the first hour of hiking; this was her 3rd attempt. Quickly enough after we started hiking, she stopped, put down her backpack and said: “I’m going back, I cannot do this”. We convinced her to keep going and even took part of her load between a few of us.
For some reason, I forgot about ascending fast and decided to stay behind her to motivate her to keep going, to not stop every 5 steps and to brainwash her with a positive mindset; I was the last in line now, but it felt good.
It took about 4 hours into the trip until the words finally came out of her mouth: “I am not going back, I am going to finish this mountain and I am gonna take a picture at the top”; and so she did. She was the happiest and proudest person at the summit and so was I, because I got to personally see her mind changing from "I can't" to "I will"!
This was a very humbling lesson for myself and such a beautiful memory. My biggest take out of this trip is that sometimes is good to put yourself aside and help someone, be the slowest one so that somebody else can also make it.
To tell you the truth, its a very hard lesson to apply daily because we are all so focused in ourselves and what “we” have to do or accomplish; but I challenge you to “slow down” your day to help out someone in need.
Can you relate to this anyhow? Have you ever slowed down for someone or someone has slowed down for you?
Until next time!
Jose Feliú
