What is the biggest obstacle you have overcome in your existance?
The last...I don't know how long, hours? days?...The last bit of time before Gabriel and I arrived in Elsewhere. I didn't think we'd make it. We were freezing and starving; we really were, not like people say "I'm starving" or "I'm freezing" here and they're really not. I was wishing that I'd had time to receive more memories of warmth from The Giver before we left, but everything was fading. I didn't know how long I would live, and I definitely didn't know about Gabriel. I thought I would probably live longer than he would, because he was just a baby. I wondered what death would really feel like, not just experiencing it in the memories.
When I saw the hill, something changed. Just a little bit. I was remembering a scrap of a memory, of another hill in snow. Somehow I knew I had to walk up, and so I began, holding onto Gabriel. I fell many times, and almost couldn't get up. That hill, I don't know how long it was but it seemed like forever. The top seemed like it would never come. I was starting to believe that we'd never reach the top. I was using the last of the memories of warmth to give a little to myself and Gabriel, but soon we were freezing again.
I was so tired when we reached the top. More tired and more cold and more sore than I'd ever been. But when the ground leveled I began to feel happy. I was remembering, and they were memories of my own, that I could keep. Memories of my parents and my friends, of The Giver. I think those memories gave me the strength to remember something else, the other hill again. I found the sled, just where it had been in the memory. And as we went sledding down the hill I finally knew that we'd be okay, that we were heading towards a place with warmth and light and love.
When I saw the hill, something changed. Just a little bit. I was remembering a scrap of a memory, of another hill in snow. Somehow I knew I had to walk up, and so I began, holding onto Gabriel. I fell many times, and almost couldn't get up. That hill, I don't know how long it was but it seemed like forever. The top seemed like it would never come. I was starting to believe that we'd never reach the top. I was using the last of the memories of warmth to give a little to myself and Gabriel, but soon we were freezing again.
I was so tired when we reached the top. More tired and more cold and more sore than I'd ever been. But when the ground leveled I began to feel happy. I was remembering, and they were memories of my own, that I could keep. Memories of my parents and my friends, of The Giver. I think those memories gave me the strength to remember something else, the other hill again. I found the sled, just where it had been in the memory. And as we went sledding down the hill I finally knew that we'd be okay, that we were heading towards a place with warmth and light and love.