Virginia Outdoors

No words can truly give these experiences justice. Go outside, leave your technology (with your camera as the exception) behind, with some good friends and make some great memories. Experience nature, respect it, and the rewards are innumerable.

- Stephen

The Bug

Unshakable. Insatiable.

It’s an itch and a thirst, a terminal infection. It’s travel.

Recently, I've come into a mild travel-kick. Beginning last spring, when I took a trip to the UK with my rugby team, I became enchanted with the freedoms of international exploration. Always being an avid backpacker and fisherman, I took every available moment during the next summer to explore a new corner of the state which I call home. This winter was highlighted by a trip to Ecuador to tune-up my Spanish abilities and tour the South American paradise. When every day for 2 weeks was characterized by new people, a new environment, new foods, and new culture I didn't want the excitement to stop.

It’s an addiction.

So now, sitting on a chair at my desk, I am left to dream of future travel and postulate why it’s such an important activity in which to engage. First, it is an opportunity to define ‘you’. Travel offers a blank slate. No one knows who you are, you are not bound by any agenda, and your limits are those which you set for yourself. How you handle yourself with such autonomy will define your character: how do you use your time? Will you step outside of your own comfort zone? Will you make the effort to meet new people? How do you decide with whom you share your experiences? How will you decide which experiences to have? Along with dozens of other questions, only you have the ability to provide an answer through your actions on the trip. Second, travel will widen your perspective on everything. What matters to you, needs vs. wants, and daily routines all have the potential to be challenged by any one of the experiences you will have while abroad. Hopefully you will uncover some of the trivial problems in your life which may be done away through minimization. Furthermore, it is easy to come to grateful conclusions about the place you call home. The value of the “little things” will probably increase after the trip. Lastly, I cannot omit the rejuvenating properties of travel. We have all heard of the importance of rewarding yourself for hard work,  meeting goals etc.,  and travel is (potentially arguable) THE best reward for such behavior. Mind at ease, any length of travel provides both a physical and mental separation between you and the problems of reality. Placing yourself in such pleasant situations has to be beneficial (I mean, mental health days are a thing, right?)and when I’m a doctor I’ll be sure to do the research that would allow me to prescribe patient with “x Mandatory days of travel” as a legitimate treatment.

Maybe it’s just me. Maybe all it will take is your first trip abroad. Either way, I know that I cannot get enough of the adventure entailed in travelling. The sites, the people, the cuisine, all of it cumulates in an experience that is as much about the journey as it is the destination. We cannot afford to maintain such a narrow perspective as is developed by those who never leave their home state. Not in a time of interconnectedness, of globalization, were we must subscribe to a global rather than statial way of thought. Opportunity is there: the money, the methods, and the destinations. There is no excuse to not go out and experience the world, our world. Go out and gain the perspective, BE a cosmopolitanis, a citizen of the world. 

safe travels.

-Stephen

My Trip Into the Wilderness, Never Forget What Makes You Happy

Sorry for not posting in a while! I had to find some sort of escape from all of life's ridiculousness so I chose to call an old friend of mine to join my on a trek into Charles C. Deam's Wilderness area in Hoosier National Forest. We took the Grubb Ridge trail route to the Peninsula on Lake Monroe. An 8.1 mile hike in was filled with sights of a winter beauty and untouched nature- culminating into the exact mental remedy I needed to sooth a mixture of anxiety and the clutter of thought that seemed to plague me as my time away from "Mother I" wound down.

I packed a majority of the group gear and food to increase my ruck weight in hopes of adding a bit of training to the excursion - my pack was over 80lbs which, for any backpacking aficionados that may be reading this post, is an extremely heavy pack for a weekend trip. Even with that burden, my buddy and I managed to keep our pace between 3 and 4mph which allowed us plenty of time to set up camp before nightfall (we hit the trailhead around 1300) as well as ample time to leave before the great snow storm hit the midwest.

The weekend living by our own means among the frozen trees of wilderness, aloof from civilization, fostered my ability to reflect on the transformation I have personally experienced during my first semester at college as well as the web of conflict which spun in my mind. My reflections were noted in a journal that I started to carry with me in hopes of developing my thoughts to post here, but until that time I will share only a brief idea on what I found to be a minor issue that I would argue we all face; an overlooking of appreciation for the "what" and "who" in our respective lives.

By subjugating myself to an experience that by nature (pun not intended) required minimalism of comforts and communication, I found that it was so easy to count our blessings. Not to speak from any sort of pedestal nor write in stanzas of cliches fit to bestow moral upon a child - but it is almost painful to observe the ease with which a plurality of individuals take. Taking what one wants by impulse of the moment with no grace nor wisdom of future implication or use normally always leads to a waste in one form or the other. With waste, in context, denoting negative consequence; my most immediate example is regret. As we grow up and move on to "bigger" and "better" experiences and pathways in life -- whether it be college, a career, discovering new places and things, or devoting yourself to a loved one -- the foundation to our joy and successes may be easily overlooked and (regretfully) forgotten or lost. As I realize that the decisions I am making shape the role I will fill in the world and ultimately the legacy I leave, the thought which anchors me when I  feel so filled with ambition and goals that I will take off is the thought of my family's undying love and support.

On my trip, my good friend and I were able to go out with only what we were able to carry on our backs and each other, without the amenities of modern civilization, and create a memory that I know I will cherish for a long time. I believe everyone should stand that kind of vigil, one held within themselves. Never forget the "what" and "who."

- Stephen