The Olympic Tower is another building I encountered on a family road trip, many years ago. I can’t remember exactly how old I was – I had to have been in middle school or younger. We toured the Montreal area, visiting Niagra Falls and this monolithic, somewhat awkwardly curved structure.

At first I didn’t have a great time there. I tend to get nervous when faced with great heights, and at this stage in life even the taller diving board in the public pool was a real fear factor. So I was quite terrified when I learned that the elevator that we would ride up the tower was mounted on the outside, giving its passengers full awareness of just how high they were travelling. Looking down, the view is something like this:

I refused to look outside for the entire trip up the tower! In retrospect it’s quite funny, me as a little kid cowering in the corner while everyone else relaxed and enjoyed the journey (or at least, I think that’s what they did. I wasn’t looking at them, as that would require looking in the direction of the windows).

At the peak of the tower there’s a souvinier shop and, you guessed it, windows. Eventually I reasoned that since I was no longer on a moving machine it was safe enough to look around. My memory of what else I did up there eludes me, but by the time we boarded the elevator going down, I had mustered the courage to look outside.

It wasn’t necessarily a fun experience, going through the Olympic Tower, but it was one that helped me mature just a little bit. These days I’m much more likely to seize opportunities to appreciate great views that I won’t get to see often.