OLDSchool

Back in 2015, I was taking a semester off college to do an outdoor leadership and discipleship course. We took two weeks out of the semester to go backpacking. This required us to each carry 50lbs of clothes, food, shelter and gear through the mountains for up to 10 miles a day. It was terrible at first, my back and feet never hurt so much in my life, but it got easier a few days in. On day four we came across a campsite in a huge field surrounded by trees and every inch covered with every color of flower that you could imagine, it was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen, until five minutes later when I saw an opening through the trees. Through that opening I found a cliffside that overlooked what seemed like the entire state, you could see for miles without end. That day I felt all my stress and worries melt away. That night it started raining, the amazing view was clouded by fog and we were all soaked to the bone, but we didn't let that dampen our spirits. It ended up raining for the next 9 days, all of our clothes were soaked, our backpacks gained 10 pounds from the water alone, and we became miserable. I don't think I've ever been in as bad of a mood as I was that week. After three days of walking through ankle high water, I started enjoying myself, we were all jumping in puddles and singing bohemian rhapsody by the end of the day. On the ninth day we came to the side of a road to restock food only to find out that we were being evacuated, the water was now knee high on me (6 feet tall) and we all looked at each other with a look that said "we don't want to go." Despite the cold rain, wet sleeping bags, back breaking hikes and miserable spirits, I wouldn't change a single thing. If I had the option to do it all again the exact same way, I would rain and all. What we have lost from the world is our sense of wonder and adventure, in this age of internet and smartphones, we rarely take time to disconnect. I play lots of video games and spend most of my time indoors, but if I could go backpacking more often, I would trade in my Xbox for a backpack in a heartbeat.