Written October 22, 2009 by Ilya Brotzky.

beep, beep, Beep, BEEP, BEEP.

I wake up with a head ache and roll over to turn off my phone alarm.  It’s 10.30 and I should not have spent that extra hour online last night watching youtube videos and generally wasting time.

10.30…10.30! We have a bake sale in 30 minutes and I had to bring the brownies to Mann Library.

The mad scramble began.

I jumped out of bed, jumped into the shower, gulped down a glass of water for breakfast, grabbed the brownies and was out the door.

And yes, I did get dressed too, sorry ladies.

10.45. I was out the door, two trays of bake goods in hand. The only thing that stood in my way now was -dramatic pause – The Slope.

The Slope

For those of you not familiar with The Slope, aka Libe Slope, it is the most hated and treacherous vertical incline on the planet(or just Cornell’s campus, which might as well be my whole world right now).

It is what stands between those unlucky enough to live on Cornell’s West Campus and class. As if going to class here was hard enough, I know had to climb the beast that is the slope each and every morning.

So here I was, brownies and all,  ready to conquer the slope yet again. Feeling sorry for myself, I headed up.

And then a strange and inspiring thought wandered into my head.

“Ilya you’re going to be climbing a mountain in three months!” My brain reminded me. “This is just one, small insignificant hill.  You’re going to be facing seven days of slope when you get to Kilimanjaro. Get used to it.”

I have to admit, my brain can be pretty smart from time to time.

So now I was no longer in fear of the looming “hike” to Mann Lobby. I was determined to summit the slope as I’d done countless times in the last three semesters.

This time however, when I got to the top, I imagined myself at Uhuru Peak, the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Fistula Free Climbers Selling Brownies

Now that’s a slope I can’t wait to climb.