These past 3 weeks seems like the most stressful weeks of my life. It seemed like I was in an endless midterms week. I walked everywhere in speed-walk while my brain was dazed and stressed. I felt like I was an awful person to be around that was just constantly talking about what I needed to get done and stressing everyone else. I knew that Saturday’s hike was going to be my light at the end of the tunnel. This thought got me through the last week of work.
On Saturday morning I slept through my first 2 alarms and woke up disoriented to Julie tapping me to get out of bed. I threw on my layers of clothing and headed to Wawa. The lights and bright packaging made me even more confused and overwhelmed but I shook it off and headed to WAC. I squeezed into a van row and attempted to sleep off my 3 weeks of midterms, despite the fact that my knees seemed to be going numb.
When we arrived at the trail I was ecstatic to get out of the van. I needed to use my legs and get in a nature that wasn’t the quad. As we started the hike I immediately regretted bringing as much water and layers as I did. They were weighing me down, making me uncomfortably hot and my filled backpack started to hurt my back. But, I continued on anyway and powered through.
Being from Long Island I don’t get to see mountain tops and valleys very often so when we came to the first ledge I was mesmerized. It was at this site when I first came to think about the point I mentioned on our last stop. Looking out at the trees that seems to last forever and land below me, I thought about how much other stuff there is in this world.
I use the vague word “stuff” because I think that there is just really so much outside of my own life that this Earth encompasses. There are millions of trees that have their own networks and ways of survival. There are millions of species that are part of different ecosystem webs. There are even animal and plant species that humans don’t even know about that exist out there. There are billions of people on this Earth that have their own friendships, personalities, joys, and worries. And there are the oceans, rivers, lakes and bays that have their own ecosystems that are entirely different from the one that we saw on Saturday. Point being– looking out on this vista and walking along this trail made me realize that there is so much “stuff” on this Earth outside of the stress I endured these past 3 weeks on the Lafayette’s campus. I am just one very small part of this Earth.
It is important to get out in the wilderness and to remember this notion. If we do not we can get too wrapped up in our own lives and become stressed out about things that are just so minute. We would unintentionally live life as ignorant and self absorbed. Reflecting on the big picture is humbling and calming. Coming out of the hike I am emotionally and mentally restored. The physical hiking of the trip (and focusing on not breaking an ankle) helped do this but it was looking into the woods and out to the vistas that brought me back to center. As much as I wish it could, the Quad just doesn’t seem to do the same for me. Maybe the reasons why is the pesticide use or the idea of being on campus but either way I need to get out of the Lafayette bubble more often.