When I was little, I remember my dad taking my sister and I on hiking trips in the Tennessee mountains. I was only nine years old, so hiking a mountain seemed like too large of a feat to accomplish. Laurel Falls was the first place we hiked to, a total of about five miles round trip. I didn’t think my short little legs would be able to carry me up a mountain full of twists, turns and bumps. These road-blocks seemed terrifying, barriers that I wouldn’t be able to overcome. Little did I know that this was only the first mountain I was going to have to climb.

Back in October, my friend Cassidy and I woke up at the crack of dawn to do a photoshoot. We took a few pictures around her house, but decided that the view was only average, and we wanted something more than average. Uphill about a mile was a gorgeous mountain view that we knew would make these pictures stand out. We started walking, and within minutes, I was exhausted. I wanted to turn around and quit, walk back down, and take the easy route. Sure the pictures wouldn’t be as great, but they would be good enough, right?

We continued on, taking detours along the way, stopping to photograph each other and capture the beautiful moments we were in. There were still long stretches of only an uphill climb, but the breaks in between made everything easier and even more worth it in the end. There was a bridge right below the top of the mountain that I posed on for a picture.

As I stood on that bridge, I realized that my little adventure for a more-than-average picture represented my life. I battled my way through the tough twists and turns even though some of them made me almost want to quit. The hike was altered at points, thankfully though, because we captured some beautiful moments when things didn’t happen how we originally planned. I finally reached the end of the bridge, where I stopped to smile for a little bit. Despite the challenges and changes, I never had a downhill experience. I found myself looking back, both to my nine-year-old self hiking, and down the current mountain, proud of what I had overcome to get where I was. And the best part? There was still so much more I had yet to experience; I knew it could only be uphill from there (literally and figuratively).

That’s what life is. Challenges and unplanned adventures that always result in good, even when it doesn’t seem like it. There will always be a daunting mountain, maybe even two or three. But what I have learned is that you have to deal with the mountain right in front of you before trying to conquer the rest. The joy you will experience when you reach the goal you dreamed of achieving will be worth all the pain and hardship. What will be even more joyous is the feeling that since you just conquered one mountain, you know that you can do it all over again.

So when life decides to take you up a mountain that seems too hard to hike, hike it anyways. Keep moving up that mountain, don’t ever give up. Never turn around and go back down, because no matter how bad that mountain may seem in the moment, it will always end in a view worth fighting for.