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Being a bridesmaid can be challenging—it takes a lot of patience to help your friend plan her wedding and have the happiest day of her life. This is especially true if you’re still the one bridesmaid in the group who’s single! Luckily, you can mentally escape from the situation during the actual wedding by daydreaming about these four mountains you’d like to climb someday:

Mount Whitney, California

At 14,494 feet, Mount Whitney is the highest summit in the lower 48. The crown jewel of the Sierra Nevada Mountains is also the most popular summit in California. Since the trail to the summit is non-technical, even you can climb it, despite already being in your early thirties and never having dated a man who wasn’t complete garbage. While your friend walks down the aisle with a smile that’s as bright as a thousand suns, grit your teeth and imagine climbing Mount Whitney’s snowy peak with a hot California dude who also loves climbing. Maybe he’ll fall in love with you, too!

Mount Rainier, Washington

Towering at 14,410 feet, Mount Rainier is the tallest mountain in the Cascade Mountain Range. While the bride and groom are cutting the cake with grins of pure happiness, you can ponder how the mountain is actually a huge stratovolcano that could eventually blow up and destroy Seattle. You could have afforded to move to Seattle in your early twenties, if you hadn’t insisted on going to graduate school for a useless humanities degree while dating an alcoholic who was spending all your money. Oh well, the cake is actually pretty decent, you can eat a second piece since you’re single and it doesn’t even matter.

Mount McKinley, Alaska

IT’S FINE that the happy wedded couple are having their first dance, because after the wedding is over you can start to save money to climb Mount McKinley in Alaska. At an imposing 20,320 feet, Mount McKinley is the tallest mountain in North America. Since the climb is so dangerous, you’ll be too busy trying not to die on the way to the summit to worry about how single you still are. After reaching the top, you’ll have accomplished something that Carol and Stewart would never dream of doing!

Stony Man, Virginia

Despite only being 4,011 feet, Shenandoah’s Stony Man is a worthy mountain to daydream about when you desperately try and fail to catch the bouquet (Brenda? REALLY? She already has a boyfriend, and hasn’t been through half of what you have!). While the other bridesmaids squeal around the triumphant bouquet catcher, you can zone out and stare at the wall, imagining reaching the summit of a medium-difficult climb and meeting another single man at the top, who wears a man-bun in a way that somehow is flattering rather than irritating and shares all your opinions on Star Trek. Take that, Carol!

While weddings are a social ordeal that only last a day, mountains last for centuries. And there are enough mountains in the world for any single bridesmaid to daydream about climbing someday, maybe even with a decent man by your side!

Jenny Zaret

Jenny Zaret is a writer and instructional designer living in Maryland. She watches more than the recommended daily allowance of anime.

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