Thoughts From a Tower: Adventurous Mind

Thoughts From a Tower

This is the first post for the Thoughts From a Tower series. All other posts titled “Thoughts From a Tower” will refer to this one for further clarification.

It has been some time since I last climbed my first tower. Since then, as I scale more and more towers, my experience and confidence have dramatically grown.

Despite all the excitement, experience and confidence can sometimes dull even the most exciting activities. As time goes on, and as familiarity builds, less brainpower and focus are required. The result is boredom.

True Story: “Did this asshole get so bored he fell asleep on the tower?!”

And while the entire experience itself is extraordinary, there is only one aspect that is rather monotonous and boring—climbing down.

The Ups and Downs

The climb up is always exhilarating. Every tower is different—with its own unique set of obstacles and puzzles to solve. And the physical demands are always high—essentially a free workout every time.

Naturally, the towers are extremely important. For example, many of them provide cell phone coverage (Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T are frequent clients), FM/AM signal, etc. Many towers require engineering work as well, so that also commands my full attention.

I work pretty hard—sometimes.

The best part is almost anything will look incredible when you are so high up in the air.

Living life on the edge.

But all of the exhilaration and adrenaline reach a crescendo at the top of the tower. This crescendo eventually dissipates in a shockwave of emotion—equivalent to me slamming a “Release the Shockwave” button—the moment I begin heading down.

The downclimb can be very long on a 500 feet (152 meters) tower like this.

There’s not much to do on the way down. Gravity aids my descent, and most of the work is already done. As I wind down during my climb down, I get terribly bored.

Wandering Thoughts

One of an adventurer’s greatest qualities is a pensive and curious mind. In short, adventurers’ thoughts wander as often as they do.

I sometimes get lost in thought for hours looking at a view like this.

To ease the boredom, my mind wanders through a maze of thoughts during my climbing sessions—most notably during the downclimbs. The Thoughts From a Tower series was born from this pensive state.

This series is essentially a combination of stories and ideas. I’ll show some photos and tell stories about the towers and places that I’ve seen. These towers and places are from all over the United States. Next, I present an interesting thought wandering through my mind.

The thoughts can be about anything. There are no limits on the topics to be discussed.

Heart of Nature

As a much-needed bonus, the locations where I work are often isolated and/or within the heart nature—peaceful environments conducive to deep reflections or thoughts.

In these places, the air is refreshing, the scenery is beautiful, and the ambiance is serene. My mind is alert and my thoughts are crystal clear. There’s nothing quite like it—hanging hundreds of feet in the air while admiring the gorgeous and peaceful surroundings.

During these moments, ideas slowly crystallize in my mind. From tower to tower, these ideas grow exponentially and undergo multiple iterations and refinements until I find them interesting and worthy enough to share with you here.

Some ideas only fully mature after having been on many towers, mountains, and states. In fact, a single idea can be the final result of weeks or months of careful deliberation in the most optimal places (although I will usually pick photos from my favorite places).

I hope you find these thoughts to be motivational, insightful, meaningful, or helpful to you in some way.

At the very least, the Thoughts From a Tower series will be entertaining, because I include numerous photos of the towers and beautiful locations where I collect my thoughts.

Fair warning: There will be many photos from great heights. As much as I would like to say that I hope you’re not afraid of heights, I’m pretty sure you are 😉.