Anyways, I'm back from my short trip up north w/ the parents! Awesome trip, lots of sand dunes, lots of hiking (four trails in three days. puny mileage, only 10miles in total, but acceptable), & lots of good food. The trip got off to a kind of weird start & by that I mean instead of paying a considerable amount of money (over $200/night) at a hotel since the trip was so last minute, my mom called up our dentists & asked them if we could stay there for two nights.
Little did we know that they were going to be there too. Hahaha. Yeahhh, that was interesting & very much awkward. Nevertheless, it was also extremely cool because I would've never known otherwise how cool my dentist is- the only boy drafted in his neighborhood to come back from the Vietnam War, lived in a ton of places all over the world & yet can do the Iron Man at 65. In case you don't know what that is, it's a 2.4 mile swim followed by a 112 mile bike ride; if that wasn't enough add a full marathon of 26 miles to that.
Back to the trip though it was short, I think it's one of the best ones I've had in a while. It was a great opportunity to unplug from our connected world (mostly, I'm guilty of checking my phone a few times a day), leave my laptop behind & only have books as a form of entertainment. Our society is so caught up in a world full of technology it's refreshing to take a step back & breathe, live at a slower pace for a while. We didn't do long hikes as mentioned, but three of the four were pretty challenging. You wouldn't think it but sand dunes are a great work out & I loved getting back on the trails.
I realized in a conversation w/ one of my good friends last night why I enjoy hiking so much. That sounds weird, I mean it more in a way that I've always enjoyed it but I've never described why. It's a combination of things, if we want to be cheesy, we can call it the trifecta (lame, I know): nature, mental, & physical. The nature part is that change of pace from the urban & even suburban, it's the quiet beauty that surrounds you, beautiful landscapes that inevitably catch your eye, dark & silence of the night only broken by a coyote howl. The mental part is taking all those essential & necessary distractions out of your life (i.e. phone & mp3), leaving you w/ only yourself. Forcing yourself to have 'you time', internal reflection on whatever topic you choose, taking however long you want to spend on said subject, & allowing yourself to come to your own conclusions w/o outside opinions. The physical is pretty obvious, pushing yourself as far as you can take it. The beauty of hiking is that everyone can choose a trail that fits his or her needs whether it be grueling or a nice evening walk. Regardless, once a trail is chosen the hiker sets his or her speedometer, takes breaks when necessary, & whatnot. I guess that's a really roundabout way for me to say that hiking offers (well, pretty much forces) me to stop worrying about other people in my life & how my decisions might affect them or judgement they may pass & instead, focus on my wants & needs. Extremely refreshing & why I recommend it to everyone.
Other than the attempt at eloquence I just spewed above, I got my first sunburn of the summer today, sad. I was doing so well w/ the sunscreen! It's kinda funny looking, moderately burnt shoulders, barely tanner chest, white lines from where my backpack straps were, lightly burnt on my neck, & the line between my tank top & backpack straps is kinda visible. Funny.
On the phone w/ Zach, I was hit by a dose of reality; school starts in about two weeks. I didn't even think about buying a textbook until he asked me if I had gotten mine yet. Oops. Maybe it's time to start the checklist for pre-school year errands, I know all of you won't care but that's okay:
Pay tuition (puke), CPR re-certification, LKS stuff, textbooks (puke), renew liability insurance
Deposit paycheck
Print out & know the review packet like the back of my hand
Grocery shop & stick to healthy foods
TB test
Try to charm my way into an externship
No comments:
Post a Comment