A Waste of a Year? Richard, Kathy and Niall Disagree, and so Should You

Priming, coincidence, or serendipity even — call it what you like, but this week something came my way again which I felt like sharing as it made me pause for a second and reflect how this might relate to current events, thoughts and the obvious one, my most recent post on books which initially included another reference, one I decided to leave out to keep it simple, not overshare for a change, and yes, to tame the SEO beast, whose traffic light system continues to greet me in bright red, not always a bad thing as we know by now.

So, what thought-provoking news landed in my inbox this time?

The day I shared my latest readings with you guys, the following story also came to light and was sent to me by one of your fellow readers: Astronaut-explorer sets records on dive to deepest point on Earth. Why do I think it’s relevant? Well, having introduced you to super-cave heroes Bill Stone and Alexander Klimchuk, who (among others) were trying to find the bottom of the world in the deepest caves on earth, some of them going beyond 2,000 metres (6,560 feet), I felt it my duty to also mention astronaut-explorer Richard Garriott who travelled to Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, the lowest point on Earth only reachable by deep sea submersible at approximately 11,000 metres (36,200 feet), last week, on March 1. It turned him into the first person to traverse both poles, launch into space and reach the bottom of the earth.

Impressive, right? But random still I’m sure! It might be worth noting that Richard is 59, and he followed in the footsteps of the former NASA astronaut Kathy Sullivan, the first space traveller and first woman to dive to Challenger Deep in August 2020, being 68 years of age at the time.

While introducing you to another female heroine, and “The Most Vertical Girl in the World” as one of Kathy’s mission patches highlights, I’d also like to revisit the age limit for outdoor explorers I mentioned when talking about the The Blind Descent, a limit that undoubtedly holds true for certain fields and activities but should not be seen as general rule as Richard and Kathy show — something I felt like emphasising as age appears to be a bit of a sensitive topic these days.

Just having had a lockdown birthday myself, I can now relate more to the sentiment and urge of many to ignore this year and not add it to the age count, something I’d happily do as well having officially left my early thirties behind. On second thought though, seeing this year as a waste of time, pretending it never happened, might offer temporarily amusing relief, but it would also discard everything that did happen, all the things we achieved. ‘Not much’ tends to be the default response when asked what we’ve been up to. Me telling you about these exciting explorers is probably not helping either.

A solitary stroll along the Millennium Trail, not quite the birthday adventure I had in mind but still a memorable day full of awe-inspiring views and friendly conversations along the way, even if a bit nippy out there — maybe a good thing other plans had to wait?!

So yes, you’re right, it definitely has not been the year any of us set out for. I certainly did not achieve many (if any) of my goals. I’ve not seen countries I wanted to travel to, completed challenges I wanted to participate in, did not get to work on further projects providing the financial security for future endeavours. Instead, I managed to built up this dreaded gap on my CV which I’ve been trying to avoid with force ever since I started working in my teens, while chipping away on my savings, a fortunate circumstance I’m fully aware of knowing that many people are much worse off. That being said, I probably have not much room to talk, but, to offer a little glimmer of hope in the age arena, I’d like to share something that helped me through the darker days, something I initially wanted to include in the last post as inspirational bonus. In addition to Richard and Kathy, I’d like to introduce you to Niall Breslin, the man who’s been waking me up in the morning and winding me down after my nightly runs lately (Wake Up/Wind Down Podcast on Spotify).

While sharing relatable and genuine stories, offered in a rather calming format, one nugget of wisdom stuck with me in particular, be it due to the impending birthday or a subtle sense of failure creeping in with a work-wise rather unsuccessful year, one some of us would like to erase from memory but instead, should actually cherish as it made us stronger, it allowed us to build up coping mechanisms and resilience we never needed before and didn’t know we had in us.

We might not have flown over the North or South Pole, ventured to the deepest place on earth, be it in caves or underwater, or travelled out to space. Instead, we hardly made it from our bed to the kitchen at times, but in some way, we did turn ourselves into little superheroes, resilient fighters that weathered the storm. There were many ups and downs, highs and lows, some of the latter probably putting the Mariana Trench to shame, but we did come up again so far, and will continue to do so given the new abilities this time allowed us to develop, making us merely invincible for anything the future might throw at us!

Be it new talents you developed, family ties or friendships you strengthened, priorities you re-shifted, the new routines you build up to cope with the mess, that’s all progress, not something to be brushed under the carpet or logged as waste of a year.

I mentioned my evening runs that got me through the dark days, a coping mechanism that at times felt like running away from my sorrows and loneliness, but rethinking this new routine, who knows when those running legs might come in handy one day. The North Downs Way was plastered with ‘Beware of the Bull’-signs. I was in luck so far, but if I ever meet one on a bad day, I’m ready! And so are you!! Just keep your head high and wear the last year with pride. ‘Today’s pain is tomorrow’s strength,’ somebody once told me — and boy, how strong we are!!