If I think back a decade, 17 year old me. Here’s things that I was sure would not be happening.

1. I would not like the outdoors, as 17 year old me hated the outdoors and liked the indoors

2. I would not be getting married, as 17 year old me thought marriage was a sham and I was a lonely kid anyway with no romantic prospects so whatever, maybe I’d be a spinster

3. I would not have my “hen do” up a Munro, because of the two previous points and also I did not know what a Munro was.

And yet 17 year old me was wrong on all points. Last year I married my wonderful husband in as relaxed and casual a ceremony we could manage (a story for another time perhaps) and as I have never been one for excessive alcohol and had discovered just how much I liked being outside I spent my “hen do”- the largest of air quotes around that- with two of my closest friends going up Schiehallion on the 30th June 2018. It was freaking awesome.

We were exceptionally lucky that we got incredible weather for the entire hike. Roasting warm and somehow pretty sunburn free for once. I was also extremely grateful because one of my friends is Scandinavian and this was pretty much her first experience of a major hillwalk in Scotland. If it had been hellish weather I’d have been gutted because I so desperately wanted her to enjoy it and see this beautiful country.

The hike up Schiehallion is extremely forgiving for a Munro (obviously based on my vast experience) because so much of it is a constant gradient up the spine of the hill. There aren’t many sudden steep gradients so you get into a total rythm. Then come the boulders which on the way up were incredible fun. The sun and heat meant the boulders were bone dry, stable and safe so we hopped between them with total confidence. I’d have hated to do it in rain or snow. My friends would have been fine but I am obscenely clumsy and I’d have needed to wear a helmet. We also lost the path going up because we were having too much fun boulder hopping so we were grateful our navigation wasn’t tested by poor visibility.

We sat on the summit for a long time because the view was the best I had see till that point. We could see for so far, pointing out mountains in the far distance that I knew how long they took to drive between and yet I could see them from Schiehallion. Breathtaking.

We also tried to find a geocache on the summit but that was not to be, we circled round the same 20m2 area of boulders over and over convinced we could see rocks that looked out of place or weird and then come up with nothing. But that’s ok.

The way back down I spent reflecting on my friendship with the two brilliant women I was on Schiehallion with. I met them at university and stuck to them like glue the entire time we were there and when we graduated we split apart to different cities and countries. Over time our communication levels dipped but I adore this friendship because even though I didn’t talk to them every day I had messaged both of them a few weeks before saying “I’m getting married and it’s just a tiny ceremony but can you both come and can we go hiking before for my hen do” and I had complete and total confidence they would.

That meant so so so so so much to me.

Life is difficult and tough and the relationships we build are what can get us through. You can have a terrible job, but the people can be the difference. You can have the worst day but being able to tell someone can remove the negativity. But it’s also important to recognise that relationships can be intense and meaningful without being demanding. I can seriously relate to the anxiety you can feel when you send a message to someone and a wee caption pops up – “seen” – and no reply. Oh god that’s awful. That’s just a spiral of worry and sometimes dark thoughts. I have to try not to let that happen.

In my opinion the best ones are relationships where you can spend time with a person and it’s fine and you can be apart from that person and it is also fine. It builds trust and integrity in the friendship and makes it stronger.

I’ll admit here that this diary entry has ended up in a totally different place than where I thought it would. My original plan had been to end by reiterating that at this point I had gone up a Munro but I was not trying to Munro Bag yet, that would come later,but actually I think this train of thought has been a bit more valuable.

Get outdoors, make good friends and don’t stress about your relationships- just enjoy them.