After a chaotic week, I decided to try to clear my head by going on a hike over the weekend. As I ventured through Binghamton's Nature Preserve, I realized that a hike seemed to be the perfect metaphor for life. While there are many things that can be used analogously to life, I felt as though I was a walking metaphor on this hike. I know what you may be thinking: what is she talking about? How is walking through muddy woods anything like life? But hear me out and you may find it correlates to your life too.

When you begin your hike, you start on a trail that is already set out for you or, if you're adventurous, you start wherever you want. You follow the trail that's been worn in by all the people that have trekked along it before you, taking in the views and all that it provides you with.

At least once while on your trip, you'll get drawn off your path by something that interests you, and you begin following your instincts to what intrigued you-whether it's an animal you want to get closer to or a tree you want to go sit on. When you look back, you realize you're off the trail that you had started on and have began to create your own path.

Now you're no longer sure what's ahead of you, so it's all about making one right choice at a time. You might slip, stumble, or fall, but you always get back up and continue moving on. You get to choose left or right, over the tree or under, around the rushing water or through it. By making your own right moves and wandering around, you'll eventually find your way back to the path you had started on. Finding the path is comforting, but now you've also found confidence in knowing that you made it this far on your own path.

Once you're back on this path it leads you to the end of the trail, to home, and you know that every move you made was meant to happen because it got you exactly where you're supposed to be in your own individual way.

Now if the connection from such a hike to life is not obvious, I'll explain it. You're born into a life where you may start on a path that is set out for you, such as your college and career or you may start on your own path right away, living life how you want to from the beginning. But it shows us that you'll do a lot of things in your lifetime, whether someone told you to or because you followed your own instincts. You might get lost or struggle, but you'll always find your way back by following your heart and making moves that are right for you in that moment.

Life is an adventure that can take you anywhere, but most important of all is to enjoy it. Just like a hike!