I’m an avid rock collector and consider myself a geologist by hobby only as I love exploring rock formations and seismic activity underground, caves, waves, hurricanes, tornadoes, all of those exciting natural phenomena.

I rode out Hurricane Ike in Houston 3 years ago and slept peacefully while pellets of rain and fierce winds beat against the house all night long. One of my friends, who shall remain nameless, was so scared that she camped out in the bathtub cowering under a mattress. I laughed when I saw her, but she was genuinely frightened. To me, it was a great adventure.

Many years ago, I was in my parents’ driveway and a rock caught my eye. I didn’t know what it was at the time, but thought it looked interesting because it had crystals in it. Later, I discovered that it was just a piece of limestone with some quartz deposits. The rock became a part of my collection.

Throughout the years, I’ve moved several times, but somehow this rock stayed with me. I even brought it all the way to California when I moved here. I had forgotten about the rock, to be honest. Prior to the Half Dome trip, I spoke to Lynn, our leader, about a long time issue that had been troubling me. It was an issue that I didn’t think had much significance in my life early on, but I came to the realization that it really did. It was a lie that somebody told me when I was in high school that I accepted as truth.

I was in tenth or eleventh grade getting some books out of my locker when a classmate stopped what he was doing to look me in the eye and tell me, “Do you know that you are hideously ugly?” I wasn’t even bothering the guy. I was at my locker minding my own business. I had never really spoken much with this boy at all, so it was beyond me why he would even say such a thing when I did nothing to provoke him. I was very hurt, but I let it go, or at least I thought I did. Little did I know that Darren’s comment would haunt me well into my adult life.