I am the bravest man I know. I don't want to brag, but that's how it is. Granted, I'm not great friends with POWs or cowboys, but I'm a climber and climbers are hardcore. Through sheer willpower, climbers scale overhanging rock faces, risk their lives in the pursuit of the summit, and generally give it their all all the time. In addition to being able to handle risk, climbers cling to the sharpest and most painful handholds for the simple reward of scaling a particular rock face. No, climbers don't seek attention from crowds or large sums of money to compete; they climb with the pure, unadulterated motivation of being brave enough to follow their dreams. What places me at the highest level of bravery among climbers is not the daring routes I have conquered, but rather my willingness to commit to my dreams with irrefutable impetuosity. Throughout my 17 years of life, I have always had an affinity for adventure. The same irrational need I had as a child for prolonged power outages fueled my desire to become a climber, particularly my desire to climb America's most famous bouldering area, Hueco Tanks, in Texas. Although I had done a lot of climbing beforehand, including a week-long climbing tour of the South with the Adventure Guild, I had only just gotten my foot in the door of the climbing scene. escalation. I had to have more. Participating in this trip to Hueco not only put me on the path to becoming a top climber, but also enlightened me to my exceptional courage. There, nothing scared me. From the beginning, I set out on a courageous path. I had been sick the week before the trip, but no, I didn't let the fear of being stuck sick in a tent in the middle of dessert hold me back. It was a beautiful early afternoon after the last half day of school before spring break, and I was getting into my car completely distraught over my parents' decision not to make the trip. (After all, they only let me come to school that day because I had to take a math test.) After throwing my books into the backseat of my car, I casually walked toward the microbus where Stuart, the trip leader, and the rest of the climbers were busy making final preparations for their departure..