From a young age, I feel I have always been connected to nature that today influences the person that I have become. It used to be that when we were kids my mom only allowed us to play outside, hike, or watch National Geographic videos on Saturdays, so I grew up appreciating nature. I remember being around the age of 4, and going to Fall Creek Falls and walking on the rickety walking bridge and looking down to see rushing water beneath me. As a 4-year-old, it was quite scary to be so little in such a big place. I went there again when I was 17, and remember still feeling small around the rushing sound of the water and the trees that seemed to never stop stretching toward the sun.

Later on through my life and travels, some of my fondest memories are the ones that are barely memories at all, but more like fleeting images. Thickets of trees where the sun filters through to warm up the soft grass that lies there. Colors that don’t even have a name blending into one another as the sun goes down. Those images give me the sense that being alive is such a beautiful thing to be. When I remember these things, I tend to get silent for a moment and smile internally at the things that can’t really be put into words. This is where I wish I had a photographic memory just so I could remember the smallest details.

I know that sometimes we miss out on the things that we wish we could take more time for. The beautiful thing about being in nature is that you don’t have to take time for it because it's always there surrounding you. One thing you can always count on every day is watching the sun rising and setting like a friend who is always there. When I was abroad, I would look at the setting sun and send all my wishes and love with it home to my family because I knew soon that it would be rising for them and share its warmth and promises of a new day. We live in a beautiful world, and I am excited knowing that every day I will be more gently surprised by the beauty that surrounds us.