Masada

By Samantha "Mamph" Mason

June 4, 2015

Today, we climbed Masada. This was a day I had been nervous about for a while. I am extremely un-athletic and uncoordinated, and I had heard from many people how difficult the climb is. Despite my nerves and anxiety, I tried to stay positive as we woke up at 3 am.

At 4:30 am, our group began to climb. At first, the hike seemed pretty doable. I climbed the first couple sets of stairs without much strain, and I was feeling pretty good about the remainder of the trek up the mountain. Quicker than I had anticipated, though, I grew tired and winded. I tried to keep climbing as long as I could (shoutout to Jamie and Andrew for all the encouragement), but almost 3/4 of the way up, I knew I needed a break.

I wanted to turn around and give up. Well, I really would have preferred if someone carried me back down since I still could barely breath, but same idea. Once I was feeling a little better, Ron helped me keep climbing and he was so encouraging and supportive through the rest of the hike. I was still exhausted when I reached the top, but I couldn't believe that I had actually finished. This is definitely one of my biggest life accomplishments and I never could have done it without my incredible friends and staff on this trip.