You know, people think I'm crazy.
Who wakes up every day at 5 o'clock
and just does the same thing from Monday to Sunday?
Who does that?
I comfort myself and say, 'I'm unique.'
Not crazy though... extraordinary!
There we go, that is the word.
If I don't exercise, one of the things my husband will physically do
is serve me with divorce papers.
Because they have told me that if I don't do my exercises
then it is not nice.
When I'm sad, I have to run.
When I'm frustrated about something,
I just have to exercise.
That gives me comfort.
I take back my peace
and I become generally happy.
Things that get me excited,
it's the ability to do something that I know is challenging.
When people say, 'No, you won't be able to do it.'
That's when I actually want to do it.
It makes me feel like I'm a human being, I'm alive.
It gets my adrenalin pumping.
And I like that feeling... feeling alive.
You feel like you have conquered something within yourself.
Something inside me that says, 'Grace, you can do it.'
My mom always says that I don't give up.
People have disappointed me in my life so many times.
But I will never give up on love.
I will do it over and over again.
Because I feel that maybe at a certain time
the person was not ready (to receive love).
I will never give up on being affectionate
and empathetic to other human beings.
Because I think that is our sense of being human.
To be able to have emotions
and also to show emotions to other human beings.
So my grandmother passed away
in 2016.
Her name was Grace.
I'm named after her.
She passed on before she could see my kids.
She got sick on Monday, and Friday she passed away.
She knew I had a child but she never saw my kids.
So it's almost like, in the African culture, some sort of blessing.
Maybe I wanted her to touch them.
I don't know.
Loss is one of the things that I don't deal best with.
It's something that is painful and it shatters my heart.
I don't wish it even upon my worst enemy.
I wish I could have done a lot of things for her
to show my appreciation.
Little things.
We used to buy her things... but that's just material things.
That is why I wanted to spend time with her.
My journey of climbing mountains
only happened after her passing.
And I think it was me looking for a sign,
for her to say, 'It's ok'.
Maybe that is why I go to the mountain so much.
When you climb a mountain there is that
spiritual connection that you get
when you are on top of the mountain.
Whatever you are going through in that moment
seems to fade away.
Those things just disappear.
And it's just you, on top of the mountain,
and you look out and see the horizon.
I think she's looking down at me and saying 'well done'.
And she is happy of the woman I have become.
And I am thankful for everything that she taught me.
So my wish for my kids...
I want them to know that they must not
feel like they have to be accountable to me.
I don't want them to live their life
thinking that they have to please me.
They must not live their life saying that,
'I want to make mom happy.'
I want them to live to make themselves happy.
Because your parents will be happy as long as you are happy.
I don't want to impose my dreams onto them.
I don't want to impose what I feel I failed at in life onto them.
I want them to be themselves.
Whatever they have, it's their talent.
It's what they are born with, it's their gift.
I want them to share it with the world.
I'm grateful for being alive,
being able to be with my family,
being able to go out and climb mountains.
I'm grateful for that.
Live in the moment - live for today.
You are getting a present right now.
Open it up and just live it.
That is what I believe.