So I have this theory. It's completely fabricated in my mind and has no scientific backing whatsoever, however, it is a theory. Here is my theory for all of my mountain people out there. We have an insatiable need to be active to be wandering, adventuring and pushing the boundaries and that makes us impatient and hyperactive. It makes us impatient in the sense that we aren't content with sitting around waiting for life to happen. It makes us hyperactive because we constantly have to be entertained. We are different breed, maybe it's an innate or genetic thing or maybe it's an environmental thing, but either way we are impatiently hyperactive in the best possible way.
My mom tells a story about how my dad was upset when the people at the local ski school wouldn't take me because I was too young (too young being barely two and barely walking). So the following year at the age of three I was on my first pair of skis. By the age of five, I was playing on my first t-ball team and had already added hiking and camping to my repertoire. By the time I was in middle school, I was a three sport athlete, not including the ski racing I was doing on the weekends. My first year of high school hadn't even started and I had gone on a school sponsored raft trip and a school sponsored camp trip. At the end of high school I was a Varsity athlete, Academic All-State and a team captain. My life had been built upon the outdoors and keeping busy. Even our schools supported the kind of lifestyle we grew up in, and that made us spoiled.
Though I am partially bragging/praising the life I grew up in, I'm not the only one who can justify it. Many of my friends will testify that we grew up in a crazy and beautiful life. Going out into other parts of the country really exemplifies just how lucky we are. Which also exemplifies how this lifestyle has molded our brains. My freshman roommate and I both were from Colorado so there were many things that we could connect on. Being in Oklahoma we felt a little lost, not because we didn't love the school, but because we missed our mountains and our lifestyle. With the lack of hiking trails we resorted to walking for miles until our feet fell off. Without the snow we decided to cut dozens of paper snowflakes and hang them in our room. We longed for a good camping trip or float down the river. I love all of my friends in Oklahoma, but I will say this once, Chaco's are river shoes, not a fashion statement. Y'all are wearing them wrong (again, love you). It felt strange to have nothing to do other than to take a drive or sit back and watch endless Netflix.
Coming back home for the summer, all I wanted to do was be outside, so I got a job working at the base of Beaver Creek mountain. I get to be outside all day and I get paid to bounce on trampolines and look at the beautiful Rocky Mountains. Despite the fact that I work outside for most of the week, I still love adventuring in the small time I have off. When I hang out with friends we don't go to movies or sit around, we go camping or have bonfires up in the mountains. So yes, we live our lives outside we live them actively, who knows maybe this isn't an unusual thing. But when it comes down to it, I would never give up the constant drive to alive in the world for anything.
