She Wasn't Meant to Carry the Mountains.....

When she stepped off the airplane and looked up, she first noticed the city surrounded by mountains. Tall mountains towered above her like silent giants. The new city buzzed below them—cafes humming, students rushing, cars honking, and people bustling. She was not used to this city life. The city she lived in previously was calm, quiet, less populated, basically a student town. She kept looking at those mountains as if the mountains were calling her, trying to tell her something.

When her Uber arrived, she boarded the car, but she could only see those mountains out of the windows as if they were following her. This was not it; when she entered her new house, all she could see were those mountains.

Days went by....every morning, every night; she could see those mountains.... every day... She felt something...looking at those mountains. She had always thought them. Even as a child, her hometown was also surrounded by a mountain range. Flipping through geography books, she lingered on the pages with jagged peaks. At night, she'd dream of snowy ridgelines and endless skies. She did know why, but the mountains had always whispered: ""Come find us.""

And now, here they were—looming outside her tiny apartment window. They weren't just scenery. They were constantly present. Watching. Waiting. Whispering. Calling. Daring her.

The first few weeks in the city were heavy. She had moved here alone, chasing something she couldn't name—freedom? purpose? escape? Every day felt like lifting a weight she didn't know how to put down. New job. New streets. New people. New loneliness. And always watching mountains ike an ever burning lighthouse.

Sometimes, she resented them. She thought,

""Why do they stare like that? Like they are judging......scrutinizing.....Like they know I am not enough.""

And it happened. One weekend, he took her with him, and she followed him without any questions. On a trail that wound like a promise into the wilderness.

The car ride was more scenic than she had expected. He rolled down the windows, and the wind tousled her hair. With each turn, they left the city behind and ventured closer to the wilderness. With passing road, trees; she felt herself getting closer—closer to something, to somewhere. But she had no idea where...

She found herself overwhelmed by her thoughts. The music playing in the car stopped abruptly as they lost the signal, leaving her alone with her thoughts, which echoed loud and clear in her mind.

Her heart thumped loudly. She could hear every beat of it. When he parked the car and they got out, she saw the city— far-flung, vast, populated, and well structured. The bay was on one side, and human settlements stretched across the other.

She sat there, I don't know for how long. He was calling her, asking her if she wanted to leave. More than once, she thought about turning back, but something within her wouldn’t let her. Hours passed as she observed the grazing lands, tall buildings, the expansive bay, and the fog rolling over her new city. Slowly, the city disappeared in front of her eyes.

And then, it happened.

She stood above it all—wind in her face, the world stretched vast and endless—and the silence inside her finally matched the silence of the peaks.

She sat on a rock and cried, not from sadness, but because she finally understood. She wasn't supposed to carry the mountains.

She was meant to climb them....

All this time, she'd been burdened by her own expectations, her fears, her past. The mountains hadn't been judging her—they'd been challenging her to rise.

Not to be crushed by life's weight but to stand on top of it.

That day, she came down lighter. Not because her problems disappear, She knew what to do with them.