Week 48: My Adventure Partner

I'm about to embark on what I expect will be the trip of a lifetime -- trekking on the Great Wall of China. I wrote about this a few weeks ago, when I thanked the journalism student who wrote about my upcoming adventure in the local paper. The trip is organized by my company, and it's mostly made up of colleagues from the US and around the world.

You can bring a friend or family member, as long as that person can handle the physical challenge, raises the minimum target for Special Olympics and pays the fees as we all do. Lucky me, I have a friend like that -- a woman who is always active and looking for new ways to push herself physically and mentally. I'm pretty sure flying halfway around the world to walk up and down...and up and down...un-renovated parts of the Great Wall qualifies as pushing ourselves!

Back in May, the two of us were having breakfast with another close friend and I mentioned that I planned on registering for the event. I barely got through the background when my friend said, "I want to go with you!" I was really excited to hear this, remembering back in 1996 when the two of us did the Twin Cities --> Chicago AIDS ride (a 500-mile bike ride to raise money for local AIDS charities). It was like we were getting the band back together!

About four months and countless hours training in the Wissahickon, Valley Forge and Appalachian Trail areas, we are about to begin our trip. I am so proud of everything we've done to get to this point, including raising a lot of money for Special Olympics. But more than pride I feel gratitude. Because she is joining me, I've had a partner every step of the way -- figuring out the gear we needed, how to pack, get our visas, etc. It would have been fine to prepare alone, but sharing the adventure with a lifelong friend -- that's something extra, extra special.

Photo by Joel Danielson on Unsplash