On Hard Tasks
One of the views of Rainier only visible by foot
This last weekend I went on my first backpacking trip, a few days hiking around Mt. Rainier National Park. It was a wonderful trip, and I’m definitely hooked on backpacking, despite it including some of the hardest physical things that I have ever done.
That seeming contradiction of an experience being rewarding and being very difficult at the same time reminded me of interactions that I had with a supervisor a while back. When asking me to do a task for her, would often preface her requests with “Don’t do this if it’s hard, but…” I was always unsure of how to respond to these request, mostly feeling that we had some philosophical differences about the value of difficulty. Read the rest of this entry »