Growth and Grit

You go home and decide to put in the work to apply and try to get a job at the Rock Wall. But the more people you meet and talk to, the more you see that nobody cares about the rock wall that much. Nevertheless, you work with your dad to put together a resume, and a professional (ish) work portfolio and you send it to the local community association for the job. And then you wait, at first for days, then weeks, and finally months. You are beginning to wonder if they even care about your application at all, or if it's in little pieces in a shredder somewhere. But you hope and hope that you can get the job. never before have you had to hope for something to happen that was so out of your control. Then one day when you least expect it you get a call from an unmarked number. It was the Community Association and they were wondering when you could come in for an interview! You have never been so thankful for a strange unmarked number phone call. You go into the interview and by some miracle (definitely a godly miracle) you dig up years' worth of information on knot-tying and rope management skills that get you the job. As you start working you get to see the rock wall reopen and all the locals and regulars that come in you begin to develop lifelong friends. One such friend is Jaxen, another climber who also started climbing at the same time as you. You both begin to come into the rock wall more and more and you both get better and better. As you both climb together not only do you become better climbers, but you become great friends. Then you find out about the Rock Climbing Team at your school. You decide to join it on a whim with Jaxen, and you both find that you are good at competitive rock climbing. You begin climbing so much that after 2 years of working and competing in rock climbing, you end up placing 20th in the state for rock climbing. By the time you are getting ready to leave for college, you are having to say goodbye to tons of friends that you would never have gotten to meet in any other situation. You are so grateful for them all that you take the time to write the rock wall as a whole a big long letter before leaving. You feel a lot better about leaving for college after taking time to appreciate all the people you met while working at the Rock Wall. and to think that you would have never been able to develop these skills meet all these people and develop this passion if you hadn't been willing to put the work into applying for the job! Now that you have been successful at growing your interest in rock climbing to a great level, you can now go find some other interests to pursue and deepen!