Growing up, I always loved the outdoors. I think being a kid, you just naturally have a tendency to love being outside in fresh air. I grew up in a small neighborhood where everyone was friends. I was close to the neighbors and my siblings and I would run around with them outside until it was time for dinner. And then after dinner, we would go back outside until our mothers would simultaneously yell out the front door that it was time for bed.
Some of my favorite childhood memories were spent outside. Taking family bike rides together (except when my dad would make us wear an obnoxious helmet even until we were in high school), catching lightning bugs, being on my dad’s boat.
I took for granted having the accessibility to the outdoors until I started going to high school and spent all my days indoors, and suddenly I didn’t have any time to spend outdoors. I was involved with theater, so when the other kids got to go run around outside playing sports after school, I chose to spend even more time inside.
When I got to college, I didn’t really realize how much the outdoors would grow to mean to me. Even though classes are inside, I didn’t realize how much time I would spend outside walking from class to meetings, and how much people value spending time outside. I realized people wanted to sit outside on a nice day, instead of being cooped up inside all day. In high school, I drove everywhere and I spent all of my time indoors, but when college came, I really grew to appreciate the fresh air and nature in general.
I wanted to explore more of the outdoors. My freshman year, I didn’t have any way to get home for Easter and all of my friends were leaving to go see their families. The Outdoors team at my school was leading a hiking trip so I decided to take a risk and go on it, even though I didn’t know anyone going on it. The trip turned out to be the most challenging and rewarding experience I ever had. It was a three-day backpacking trip, and from a girl who has barely hiked, let alone backpacked before, it was definitely out of my comfort zone.
But what I realized on that trip was that I truly felt like myself when I got to the top of the mountain and looked at how far I had come. I felt a wave of calmness come over me, and a peace with the world that I had never experienced before. I felt like God was standing right there with me the whole time, and I loved the way nature made me feel. I felt at one with myself, and during those long hikes is when I really found myself.
After several hikes, kayak trips and traveling through different countries and cities, I’ve come to realize that mountains are my escape. They’re my escape in that when I need a break from the stressors of life and even a break from people, they’re where I turn. I turn to nature, purple mountains and blue skies and I immediately find myself again.
