#23 Get outside and get a grip

Sometimes you just need to go for a hike.

Seriously though, after four months of non-stop schoolwork and extracurricular commitments, my mind, body and soul needed nothing more than a simple trip to a state park to unwind and take some time to reflect.

During finals week a bunch of us decided to take a study break to go to Devil’s Icebox in Rockbridge State Park, and it was the best decision we had made in a long time. You don’t really realize how ridiculous all your worries are until you’re in a place that’s so naturally beautiful, you can’t bring yourself to believe that anything so superficial could be taken seriously (and instead, you realize that pretending to be Indiana Jones and exploring a cave with only the iPhone flashlight app to help guide you is a much better way to spend your time).

I wasn't kidding, we actually did that in a cave

I don’t really know what it is about being outdoors, but it makes me freakishly pensive. Seriously though, my best pondering has been done on a bench at camp, overlooking the ancient wooden stairs that led down to a lake that defined my childhood for nine summers. During my few breaks I would get as a camp counselor I rarely spent them inside the staff lounge because I felt so much more relaxed under the shade of one of the trees dotting the path I’d been walking for as long as I could remember.

Seven of the best Camp Newaygo girls I ever met:)

It has something to do with nostalgia, now that I think about it. Even though we were constantly doing something, camp was definitely the part of my summers that made me feel the most relaxed.  I was able to be myself, but beyond that I think there’s just something incredibly tranquil about the outdoors. “Roughing it” without air conditioning and falling asleep to the sound of crickets and bullfrogs instead of the sound of trucks being unloaded while a fan attempts to droan them out makes you forget about the “real world". For that brief period, life just gets a lot simpler. You realize what’s really important and what’s not (What is: true friendship…and French toast sticks. What’s not: makeup, nice clothes and basically anything that has to do with caring what others think of you).

When you’re surrounded by life’s natural wonders, you realize that people just make life too complicated. We overthink everything, we worry about what other people think of us and we’re not always in touch with what really makes us happy.

Hiking Starved Rock today made me realize what I really want to get out of this summer: some “me” time. I mean, I think I owe it to myself. I spent the last semester worrying about every organization I was in and how my grades were going to turn out, and I forgot what it means to take care of myself.

My bud Leslie and I at Starved Rock State Park

When you’re staring at a waterfall that’s sole purpose is to look pretty and serve as a mode of transport for life’s most important resource, you get to thinking. And when you sit on a rock over a hundred feed above ground and just enjoy the view of the enormous body of water in front of you and your best friends, you realize that life doesn’t have to be as complicated as we make it.

We don’t have to waste our time talking about other people, or worrying about the fact that we’re the only “always single” girl left, or hold onto the bitterness we feel for things that happened weeks, months or even years ago.

It doesn’t matter. Sometimes we just need a little Mother Nature time to realize that we’re never going to be happy unless we start focusing on our own happiness. It’s not rocket science; if we don’t cut ourselves a break, we can’t expect to be happy. Sometimes we just need to stop and smell the roses (or the peculiar mix of spring water, sand, trees and potential animal droppings).