What the Wilderness Means to Me
I, as many do, have an attraction to nature. Recently I’ve tried to decipher why that is. We all have our reasons, many of them shared. Is it the beauty, the instinct to explore, or the desire to accomplish something new? I’ve found the main reason for me is the misery. The long days, the early rises, the soreness, the hunger, the wet, and cold, all of this brings me comfort. I’m still learning to pin point and articulate why this is. Moments such as: standing in a thunderstorm on an island or hiking up a mountain after dark with freezing rain falling on the rocks I step on. These moments are when I feel like the most at peace. At times like this, I notice my smile grow and happiness fill my body. I enjoy the sense of adventure and the challenges that come with it. Don’t get me wrong, I like the picturesque views too. But something else great about the misery, is the appreciation afterwards. Because after you spend a whole summer in wet socks, putting on your dry socks in the morning is forever a bit more sweet.
The wilderness is such a simple existence for me. All my worries melt away. It becomes just enjoying what is in front me me. I don’t stress about where I’m going to end up that day or what potential obstacles are in my path. Sure, these are on my radar, but they don’t feel like causes for worry. These are sources of excitement for me. I never realized the amount of things that one worries about in normal life until I stepped in to the wilderness. There is homework to do, emails to reply to, jobs to worry about, meetings to attend, and the list goes on and on.
Wilderness for All
Nature is one of the strongest common bonds I’ve been a part of. People of all different backgrounds can all come together to appreciate something greater than themselves. I’ve gotten to experience the wilderness with people of many different ethnicities, genders, college majors, political views, and up bringings, but none of that matters in nature. Peoples’ joy of the wilderness comes through and our differences seem to become insignificant.