Sometimes, during the middle of midterms when one’s diet consists of a problematic number of Tim Horton’s bagels and too much coffee, and the dirty laundry pile is functioning as a chest of drawers, one decides to take a small adventure. A small midterm adventure, to be precise.
The small midterm adventure has many functions. It can help preserve sanity. It can provide some much-needed fresh air or vigorous exercise. It may even allow for some camaraderie with a friend who has also disappeared into the black hole that is McGill during midterm season. The small midterm adventure may also be used to help restore one’s sense of coolness, or patch up the illusion that a life outside of school exists. My midterm adventure consisted of all these things.
Being in a stressed out, easily peer-pressured state, I was quick to agree to biking down to Allez-Up, the climbing gym located practically a trillion miles away from my apartment. So, when my friend said, “Hey, let’s go climbing on Sunday. We can bike there!”, I didn’t say, “No, that’s okay, I don’t actually know how to climb and I’m above average on the awkward-clumsy scale.” Nor did I say, “No, actually, the seat of my bike is five inches too low for me and I have been too lazy to change it so instead I keep the bike in my closet and never actually ride it.” Instead, I said, “Yes, I would love to do all of those things.”
I told myself that it didn’t matter that midterms had me down; I could be good at other things. I imagined myself cycling down busy streets full of cars like those really intense people that wear a lot of lycra. I imagined myself scaling walls with ease. It did not occur to me that to be really good at things, one must first know how to do them.
Because of this, my actual midterm adventure was significantly less impressive than the imagined version. What began as an attempt at a leisurely fall bike ride with a friend very quickly became a sweaty, terrifying journey, and my only goal was to survive.
I know that “awwmaagawd Montreal drivers are the worst! Gaah!” gets old quickly, but I shall amend that to “awwmaagawd Montreal drivers are really scary but they’re the least of my worries when my bike is too short and the chain keeps coming off in the middle of the street and for every slight incline I need to dismount and walk my bike because I am 700 per cent less fit than I imagined myself to be. Gaah!” For honesty’s sake,Allez-Up is actually located pretty close to St. Henri, which is significantly less than a trillion miles away. The trip there is also mostly downhill. Feel free to pass judgement now.
Upon arrival, completely exhausted and with nerves as raw as sushi, I continued in my pursuit of a Sunday afternoon that I could call my mom to brag about. I decided to attempt some rock walls. About three-quarters of the way up a particularly tough one, hanging on by two fingers and teetering precariously, begging to come down, I decided that maybe my friend and I should have just gone for coffee.
As excited as I had been about my epic midterm adventure, I soon realized that not everyone is cut out for such adventure, and sometimes a leisurely chat-—or going back to the library—is just better. I learned that if midterms have you down, an intense expedition might be the cure. Or might not. Also, the way home was uphill, so we walked our bikes.
