A Day To Remember...

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." These wise words spoken by Emerson lead me to realize that every experience I have in nature does not always have to be the same as everyone else. I need to live my life how I want and not travel on the road most taken. This quote can relate to my life as well as my experience in nature. I had a very eye opening experience when I was in 3rd grade.

When I was in third grade, my family took a day trip to Table Rock. The whole experience started at 7 o'clock in the morning. My brother and I sitting in the back seat of my mom's van, arguing as usual. It was a long drive and it seemed as if the mountains kept getting farther and father away. Once the eternity of driving had ended, we reached the parking lot for the mountain. Then I saw it, the mountain that we would be hiking up. As I looked up, it seemed as though the top was already in heaven and God was standing there saying "Welcome home Elizabeth." I looked at my mom and said, "You want ME to climb THAT!!" Shocked by the words that came out of my mouth, she nodded and began to the long hike, up to heaven. Thirty minutes or so had gone by, and I was plum-tired out. I am not much for walking or appreciating nature. It seems as though the leaves were taunting me, and the trees laughed at how slow I was walking. The top never came into view, and my legs started to hurt! My brother then began throwing rocks at me to make it all worse. So as every normal eight year-old would do, I began to complain. Whining and sighing really loud so my parents could hear me. I could not take it anymore. I no longer had feeling in my legs, and I started to sneeze from all the plants. I didn't mention that it was also the middle of November, and the leaves were falling, which made the ground slippery and hard to walk on. It seemed as though my life, could not get any worse, and what could possibly be at the top of the mountain that I needed to see.

After a long hike of about an hour and a half, we reached to top, and I had to take off my jacket because I was no longer cold. To be honest, I though I was dieing. Nature was stupid, why should I be at the top of this mountain? Why did my parents drag me all the way up here for nothing? My mom called me over to the drop off. I did not want to get off my rock. I was resting after all the torture she had already put me through. I finally went over to the edge, and there it was. Possibly the most beautiful site I had ever seen. The fellow mountain in the distance, sitting there as if it was waiting for someone to talk to. The clouds were low to its peak and looked like fluffy little marsh-mellows over an open fire, since the leaves were changing colors. This site took my breath away. "Wow," I thought to myself. I did not want my parents to know that I had been wrong about having to hike up the hill. I sat down and just stared at this site for at least an hour, while we ate lunch. How could God possibly make something this beautiful and not brag about it? How did I not know that this was here? In the words of Thoreau, "It is never too late to give up your prejudices." My prejudice was given up. I now had a new out look of nature and on life.

As I look back on my experience, I realized that I never really gave nature a chance. I always just thought it was there, nothing to look at, nothing to know, nothing important. Life has meaning. Everything was created for a purpose. We are all God's creations, and no matter how moronic something may seem, we should give it a chance. Someone could look at us and think that we are just normal, nothing special. I judged something before I got to know it. It was wrong of me. Nature is special, nature is important, nature is beautiful.