Take a risk, step outside

Emily Goldstein ’23 Public Relations Director

If you take a drive down to the beach, you’ll most likely see me. I spend most of my time outside. Whether that is running, walking, hiking, backpacking or scuba diving, you could say I like my time in nature. Nature has served as a medium for developing important relationships with my friends, family and self.

As the youngest member of an outdoorsy family, endless bike rides and snow trails were a norm. These experiences laid the foundation for my fascination with being outside and taught me invaluable lessons about perseverance and the importance of self-reflection.

My most challenging outdoor experience was last summer when I attended a semester school located in Eleuthera, Bahamas called the Island School. One of my tasks there was to embark on a 48 hour solo. This entailed spending 48 hours completely by myself on a beach with only a ripped up tarp, bag of trail mix, soggy yoga mat and jug of wa- ter. When the sky turned black and the thunder clouds rolled in, I constantly reminded myself that the storm would pass and the sun would again come out, uplifting my spirits. With no concept of time and nothing around me but dark sky, I remained focused on where I was in that moment, rather than where I could be.

The summer prior to the Island School, I went on a three week hiking trip in Washington State. Surrounded by eight other teens from across the country that I had never met before, we averaged 10 miles a day on foot before settling into our campsites by sunset. On the last day of summit we peaked 17 miles in one day. Through the physical discomfort, I was overwhelmed by positive emotions. Until this point, I didn’t realize it was possible to be so grateful for an experience that is simultaneously so demanding.

The lessons learned through these adventures were not left behind on the beach and in the mountains, they were taken back home with me. I learned that we are stronger than what our minds tell us.

Yes, there were many moments where I wanted to give up and cry for help. But no. Instead, I persevered and came out on the other side with a deeper understanding of our dependency on the environment.

School can definitely feel suffocating sometimes. The academic stress is repetitive and debilitating and the social ob- stacles are no walk in the park, either. However, whenever it becomes too overwhelming, ing time outside grounds me and reminds me that I have so much to explore and learn about myself. I learned my most valuable lesson outside derstorm. I think you can, too.