After the Climb

I reached the top,
breath ragged,
knees shaking,
and for a moment—
it was everything.

The view stretched wide,
sky spilling into forever.
I thought it would feel like victory.
I thought it would feel like rest.

But the wind asked me quietly:
what now?

The summit isn’t the ending,
it’s just another beginning.
A new horizon rises
the moment you reach the old one.

We spend our lives
chasing the next peak,
the next proof,
the next breathless arrival—
forgetting that success
isn’t the mountaintop.
It’s the climb itself,
the sweat, the ache,
the small victories hidden in the dirt.

So what do you do
when you’ve made it?

You look again.
You choose another path.
You keep moving—
not because you are empty,
but because you are alive.