Chris Wan, RDF International School

There’s a photo on my writing desk. It was taken at the 5,200-meter-high mountain camp on Mount Everest with my parents when I was 11 years old. Even though so many years have passed, the sights are still visible before my eyes.

On the early morning of the third day after arriving in Lhasa in Tibet, my family took a jeep to the Mount Everest camp. Arriving at the camp the next evening, I began to suffer from mountain sickness. Feeling like the Earth was spinning and my head was pinned by a needle, I decided to take a rest as soon as possible and prepared myself for the next day to climb the mountain to take a closer look at Mount Everest.

Because of my reaction to the altitude, I did not eat before going to bed. After one night’s rest, my headache still continued, but I slowly climbed up the slope of the mountain with others from the camp. Every step I took, it seemed another needle was added to my head. However, I wanted to stick to it and was determined to finish the climb.

Despite the headache and altitude sickness, I kept going with a goal to see the top of Mount Everest. Finally, I reached the mountain top with my family, and all of us took as many pictures as we could.

In the picture on my desk, wearing a large heavy military field jacket to withstand the cold of the mountains, I stood with my parents at the pinnacle. Thanks to my perseverance in mountain climbing and my braveness to overcome the altitude reaction, I was so lucky to see the magnificent appearance of Everest.

As the only child in the camp, I was proud to be able to travel thousands of miles to the Himalayas, which presented a huge milestone in my life. Now, whenever I encounter difficulties or setbacks, I look at this precious photo.

If I could reach a mountain 5,200 meters above sea level at the age of 11 and overcome the difficulties of hypoxia, altitude response, and other difficulties on my own, then what difficulties can stop me now?