courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment

So, here we are again.

You, staring up at the apex of a mountain, half-blinded by the sun — so near that if you close your eyes and try hard enough, you can almost taste what it must feel like to stand at its peak.

Me, watching quietly. Wondering what it feels like to be so close. Knowing that if you make a single misstep you’ll go hurtling back down. Knowing I can’t do anything to change the outcome.

We’ve come a long way since the last time — and the time before that, and the time before that, and… well, you get the idea.

Every time, we’re a little different, a little older, a little wiser, a little sadder. But we always find ourselves here, in the same place. Suspended in uncertainty. Waiting for a resolution.

Do you remember what it was like then? How it felt?

I remember what it was like. I was a million miles away, but still I understood your sorrow. It was like an aching sadness that wound its way through your insides and left you feeling hollow. It was the insidious whisper of doubt that crept in, unbidden, unwelcome, unavoidable — the fear that you would never get what you wanted more than anything in the world. That you’d never be good enough.

courtesy of OGN

Never is an awfully long time, isn’t it? It’s so hard to want to go on in the face of never.

So many times, you were so close to the summit. But each time you lost your grip and came crashing down again. Every time you fell, the same whispered mantra crept its way in, pulsing through you like a dull heartbeat.

Haven’t you had enough?

Don’t you know you’ll never get what you want?

And still, you’re going to try again?

Yes. You tried again. Of course you did. It was the only thing you knew how to do — to try.

It took a long time — it took you 679 days, as a matter of fact — but eventually, something changed.

courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment

One August day, you tightened your grip, you found your footing — and you pulled yourself up to stand, victorious and exhausted, at the summit. You bathed in the golden sunlight. Breathed in the cool air. Drank in the glorious sight of finally, finally being at the top.

After all this time, you had conquered the one thing that had always eluded you. It would have been so easy to try and bask in that glow forever. You were in no rush. You didn’t have to be.

But it wasn’t enough. That’s how success works, it always runs stale. There were other mountains to climb, other obstacles to cross. You still had much more to prove.

So you journeyed on. You kept with you the memory of how it felt to fall, and you decided you didn’t ever want to feel that way again. You scaled higher peaks. You became Goliath. You became a titan.

Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment

Still, it wasn’t enough.

Once upon a time you gave everything you had to finally grasp the thing you wanted most in the world. You got it. You won.

So what are you doing now, back here— staring up at the peak of the tallest mountain of all?

I think it’s because you knew, from the moment you finally stood at that first summit, that it was good, but it wasn’t enough. That you would never be truly satisfied until you found— well, something. Something you weren’t sure of yet.

Always the next mountain. Always with your eyes on the horizon, certain that the next one, the next one would be the one to make your journey feel complete.

Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment

It’s not a whisper that creeps into your thoughts anymore as you climb, but, rather, a low hum, determined and ever-present. It tells you that it will never really be enough for you. That you’ll never be done until there are no more mountaintops left to reach, until you have nothing more to prove.

The summit is so close. If you close your eyes and try hard enough, you can almost taste what it must feel like to stand there. Maybe the sun on your face from up there will feel warmer than it’s ever been.

Haven’t you had enough?

Don’t you know that you’ll never be satisfied?

And still, you’re going to try again?

Of course you are. All you’ve ever done is try, and try, and try.

Maybe you’ll climb to the top, and claim what was promised to you. Or maybe you’ll fall, and it will feel the same as it always does. You don’t know. I don’t know, either. What I do know is that whatever happens, the journey won’t end here.

Never is an awfully long time, after all — and you have so many more mountains left to climb.