We carried a backpacks filled with everything we needed to survive 5 days in the wilderness.
Some people are repulsed by this idea; Who would ever think to live in an environment packed with nothing but trees and grass and rocks? Plus how will you be able to insta anything with no service?
With that in mind, I knew that staying in the woods would definitely be a different experience, but it had to come with benefits. I've met many hikers and climbers and they all have this kind of peace and tranquility you can't find in any average person. I wanted to find that peace. I went into this whole mess to find who I am, and how to become my whole self.
And through the 5 days of campfires, sleeping under the stars, 15-mile-a-day hikes, huge cliff overlooks, rock climbing, and alpine starts, I've come to learn these 5 things.
1. Nature can touch you in ways nothing else can.
There's something about the great outdoors that gets to me. Don't get me wrong, there were definitely moments nature was not so friendly. The occasional trip over a rock, the humidity causing the beading sweat all over my body, the thorny bushes that attacked me while I attempted to pee in the dark. It was frustrating at times, but the beauty of nature far outweighed any sense of negativity I had. Every cliff we stood on was an overwhelmingly calming experience, and everytime I looked up to see the sun peeking through the shades of leaves on these huge standing trees, I felt so safe and abandoned from any worry I had. And I can't really express in words what it felt like to sit on the edge of a cliff, looking out onto the world, everything so small and fragile. I guess it's just the calming feeling that all your worries are so little compared to the huge world all around. I can't help but embrace this divine creation.
2. "Your body is capable of anything; it is the mind that needs to be convinced."
I really do like the outdoors, and I love taking nature walks, but holy crap, this was not just some happy little nature walk around the park. This was a climb. To get to every stopping point, everyone needed to keep up with each other, even when the hill looked impossible to trek up. I'm going to be honest, the first day of hiking, I felt disgusted of everything, of the whole trip, and I wanted to hitchhike back home to civilization. It was so physically draining that I wanted to roll away into the dirt and just decompose, or "accidentally" break a leg so that someone could carry me up the hill.
Obviously, either of those options were not really that smart, so I basically told myself to suck it up and keep going; it would be worth it.
And everyday, there was a new challenge that was equally draining, but day by day I'd try to be more positive then the day before, more persistent and more logical. The body truly can take it, but the mind will think of every terrible thought to make you give up the moment something gets hard. In life, the minute things get difficult we shy away from anything that scares us, so we could run back to comfort and safety, but if we constantly do that, we'll never grow. I always thought to myself, I don't really mind not growing, but now looking back, seeing how difficult things were, but more importantly, how I overcame it, I find that it's the hardest times that made me the best version of me I could be.
3. You appreciate the little things in life.
When we reached Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, we were 5 days unwashed, our skin layered with lovely nature dirt, and our stomachs filled with nothing but meat stick, peanut butter, and oatmeal. I felt a relief of happiness reaching this point of civilization. No, it wasn't the cars, or the phones that got me all giddy. It wasn't the 3G signal or the ability to use my mac again.
It was the garbage can. It was the street benches. It was porcelain toilets. It was the sinks, and as a bonus, the soap that the sink included.
Embracing an environment where I wasn't crowded with so many material things taught me that we really don't need all those things. We constantly feed ourselves with any little piece of technology or little item to fight our boredom, but by doing so, we're losing this whole other side of being human. We lose the simplicity of everyday things. We're always trying to fill our time doing anything that could use up time, instead of embracing the freedom to breathe and take in life.
On the trip, we were not allowed to take any kind of phone or social media device with us, which forced us to actually talk with one another and find a peace in being totally free from any type of distraction. We played with sticks. We tied some ropes. We built little wood houses and told campfire stories. We fell asleep in the mid day and when we couldn't fall asleep, we would lay out in the open and tell each other our dreams and aspirations in life. And through this all, we realized we weren't here by accident - we were here to remember what it means to be grateful, something we all tend to forget.
4. When you make the choice to challenge yourself, you do things you never thought you would.
I got the opportunity to do some rock climbing and repelling on our trip, and it was by far one of the scariest things I've ever done. The rock climbers kept yelling to trust the ropes, and that meant a lot to me, because it was a statement that's hard to take in. Standing on the ledge of this glorious cliff, looking down and being able to step off and drop with full trust that everything will be okay - this was an experience that was a full on leap of faith. And it was the best decision I'd ever made.
5. True inner peace is achieved by becoming comfortable outside your comfort zone.
I love nature and the outdoors, but my decision to participate in this trip was solely a challenge by choice. I knew that it would be very physically draining, very uncomfortable hygiene wise, and something definitely outside of what I would perceive as comfort. But I still agreed to go on this adventure anyways. Why? Because I knew in my heart that what I really wanted and needed in life was a sense of true inner peace. I wanted to experience this feeling of being in rough situations and frustrating conditions, yet still being able to feel like everything was okay and that everything was worth it. By the end of the trip I definitely experienced that, and there were absolutely no regrets.
There was one specific moment that really hit me, and that was on the 3rd day, when we all made an alpine start up the mountain, a 3am hike for 2 hours to watch the sunrise on Washington's Monument. It was hard; it was rough and so uncomfortable. And after all of that aching and miserable hiking, all of the crap faded away as we looked out onto this beautiful sunrise, with an overwhelming amount of peace flooding our system, with absolutely no care in the world.
I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Phillippians 4:13
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