I was rubbish in PE.

I hated the competition.  I hated all the rules I didn’t know.  I couldn’t catch a ball or throw one when I was in the most comfortable of situations, and I definitely couldn’t do it when I knew people were going to scream at me when I inevitably failed to catch or throw said ball.

When we were doing independent sports like running or swimming I was fine.  I was in good shape and I didn’t mind physical activity.  I still would have rather been developing film in the dark room, discussing a book in English, or learning complicated verb conjugations in Spanish, but I could do it.

The good thing about grown up life is this: you no longer have to deal with Middle School P.E. power dynamics.  In other words, I can go on a rock climbing adventure with my friends, and when I decide I’d rather not climb but I would love to make videos about their climbs, they said “Ok!”

So that’s what I did.

Smith Rock is absolutely stunning.  We went in the late afternoon to escape the mid-summer heat.

Marissa, Jeff, and Jayme all climbed Night Flight.  Marissa and Jeff have a lot of experience climbing and were able to show everyone else the “ropes.”

Marissa climbed first and set up the ropes.

Then everyone else had a turn.

I ended up with so much footage that I made FOUR videos.  There is one main one (embedded above) and one for each person’s climb.  It was fun to make these videos for each one of my friends- it was like making each of them a little present.

Main Video * Marissa’s Climb * Jeff’s Climb * Jayme’s Climb