Summary and Reaction: A View From Mt. Ritter

Joseph T. O’Connor, the man who once participated in a mountain expedition for two weeks, enlightened by an unforgettable predicament. This experience made him reconsider about his life and turn over a new leaf.

  It was on Tuesday of the second week in July when the weather changed swiftly from clear sky to horrible thunderstorm. Confronting this situation, Joseph and his teammate started finding for a place to hide. Under the interlacing of close thunder and relentless rain, they arrived in the shelter of nearby redwoods and putted on rain gear. Nevertheless, he and Mike, one of the expeditioner, came to realize they were standing on a small island surrounded by raging stream. They walked through the stream with caution; every step was a hard one.

  The downfall had not stopped through the day. Before they could find an appropriate spot to set up camp, the sky was already dark. The worst night is coming: they had to build their tent in the dark and spent all night in their wet sleeping bags with a small stream flew through the tent. The next early morning, he finally able to embrace the sun with it glanced over the sparkle summit. He deeply awakened himself to the awareness of following life and he had done in the past.

  This experience changed his perspective; he thought that he was too proud and unsociable, which had made many follies over past years. Consequently, He decided to go back to the right track, working hard on his schoolwork and making meaningful plan for the future.

Response:

I am especially sympathized with the quotation the author cited from one of Bram stocker’s journals: “No man knows ‘till he has suffered from the night how sweet and how dear to heart and eye the morning can be.” For me, the sentence expresses not only how people behave pathetically toward things they had already take for granted, but emphasize the significance of a harsh challenge.

There is an example best substantiate the truth of this philosophy. It was an unforgettable day in September 21, 1999. In the midnight, when everyone was sleeping, a fierce power struck us abruptly. It intensity awakened me. Although I was not very sober, the moment I opened my eye and watched the sight in front of me, I came to realize it was an unprecedented earthquake. I was trying to wake my family, but only in vain. Feeling panic and helpless, I quickly opened the door and went back to hid myself in to the sheet. It was no sooner the relentless force stopped than the electric appliances were totally dead. Fortunately, our house remained steady, and my families were all safe. In order to cope with possible aftershock, we went out of the house. It was an abnormal cold night, we saw few people also stood outside, walked around. There were no conversation; the scene was like a silent film, you didn’t hear anything, but you can understand what they’re thinking. To prevent my sister and I from catching cold, my father started his car and let us slept inside. As the sky became bright, we went back to the house and had a breakfast. All of a sudden, the earthquake came again, although not as long as in the midnight, it was also a horrible one.

Several days after, we knew from the TV that a huge amount of building collapses as well as casualties. The news was sad, yet gave me a deep influence toward life. This event was the foundation of the transformation of my perspective. I found there are more lovely and meaningful things than I had thought. In addition, I became more aggressive toward my schoolwork; after all, no one knows what I will face in the next moment, the best thing I could do is to appreciate what I have right now.