- Expedition: May 10-15, 2015
- Amanda
- New Leaf: A Sustainable Living Collaborative and Turlock High School
- Yosemite National Park: Little Yosemite Valley
To me, wilderness is more of a state of being than a thing. I do think it has to do with having natural space. And when I say it is a state, I think I mean that it is whatever you interpret it as. It has to do with perspective. For example, adventure vs. tranquility. How one chooses to view it is what it means on a personal level. For me, in short, that is probably just simplified to contentment.
Amanda helping Kiran clean out an illegal fire ring.
My role in wilderness, as a whole, physical thing is whatever I choose to bring such as curiosity as I said before, and endurance, like the limits I am willing to test, in a natural space. Actually, now that I think about it more, wilderness doesn't necessarily need to be natural, but more so it needs to be wild. Humans are animals with free will, which makes us wild, so like I said before, what I can bring in any way into the big picture of everything including what I can create, determines my role in wilderness. That could be anything, depending on what's relative, and on how everything else perceives what I do and am.
Setting up the tent for the evening.
I think after this trip, wilderness has kind of bettered me. I feel like what I have accomplished and been through out here has been so incredibly intense, that I have learned to not just test my limits but to surpass them, and even when I've done that, to keep pushing harder. There can be things to hold me back, mentally, physically, emotionally, etc, but it's my own choice to endure through it or at least try. Nature has no limits to what it can do, so I don't need to either. I can be persistent with it.
Going back to the intensity of this whole trip, I feel like I can keep going further. First of all, so I can accomplish even bigger feats. And also, I can do anything smaller, cuz it's easy no compared to this. I want to keep venturing.