Day 28 – My Most Embarrassing Moment

It was May 14, the weather was perfect. It was 12 am and we were getting ready for the climb. I was so excited that finally we will get to climb the second highest mountain in the Philippines, Mt. Pulag. We started walking but after 5 minutes I was already out of breath and my lungs were burning. I was starting to panic. It was embarrassing that it was so quiet everyone could hear my heavy breathing. In my head I was asking myself why I put myself in this, why did I think I could climb a high mountain.  I realized I was exerting too much effort to breathe. So I decided to close my mouth and breathe through my nose, and after a while I was breathing normally. I just needed to calm myself and try something that would make my breathing normal.

It was dark and I was foolish for not bringing a headlight, I used the the flashlight of my cellphone instead, thinking that my husband has a flashlight anyway, and thought we could walk side by side but it turned out you can’t do that because the trail is narrow. I know you’re saying I’m stupid. We didn’t have much time to prepare because we just came back from our honeymoon. I knew I had some headlight in my room but I couldn’t find it.

We reached the rocky part of the trail and I had tripped a lot of times and fell on my knees a lot of times but I never imagined that one those trips will be the most embarrassing moment of my life. I tripped on a rock and lost my balance that it pushed me forward ending up bumping in someone else’s leg. I bounced to the edge of the mountain but luckily saved by a tree where my butt landed with my left hand holding on to a branch and my right hand still holding my cellphone. The woman whose leg I bumped into shouted because she was afraid that I would slowly fall at the side of the mountain. Everyone had his flashlight on me as my husband and the woman pulled me out from where I was nesting.

I slowly tried to gain back my composure and was telling everyone that I’m okay even though I feel my hand was burning and my knee was aching. For a second, I thought I’m gonna slide down at side of the mountain and die, it was a horrible thought and I was very thankful that God protected me. It was a terrible experience. We continued to climb and reached the summit after 4 hours of climbing. The sun slowly came up and the sea of clouds greeted us and I knew that my most embarrassing moment was worth it. It was a magnificent view and  it’s a mountain I would never regret climbing.

How about you? What’s your most embarrassing moment?