Earth is Flat

August 21st, 2017- (Grand Tetons National Park, USA)

SOLAR ECLIPSE! I am currently in Wyoming at Grand Tetons National Park. I am here with Sam, Evan, Mateo, Emily, and Cole. Today was the Mother Effing Solar Eclipse. It was honestly the best experience I have ever had in my life. I am super happy to be here! :^)

I feel like a crazy person who is going to go around the world chasing eclipses. We had eclipse glasses so I could gradually see the sun change colors and get darker. But even cooler than that was seeing the world get so dark and then so light again. And during totality the sun was completely black with the moon in front of it, but gleamed from the edges. It felt like watching my favorite plan playing my favorite song. The Lumineers playing Sleep on the Floor at Red Rocks. The experience was exciting and magical and absolutely unbelievable. I cannot believe today.

August 13th, 2017 – (Banff, Canada)
It’s amazing how much wetter you get when it rains, and how much colder you get when you’re wet. Today was my first day hiking in Banff and I was really worried that we wouldn’t be able to see the mountains because of the nearby forest fire. Then it rained. As I was backpacking through the rain, I would look up and not see mountains but see a forest of every shade of green. Really bright fluorescent green on the ground and really deep forest green in the trees that tower above. After the rain stopped we hiked to a high above lake which was very beautiful. I am trying to learn not to compare places. I can’t say that this is not nearly as beautiful as Peru or Mont Blanc because each place is unique. Each place is breathtakingly beautiful. I thought I would come to Banff and find beauty in the mountains above, but to my pleasant surprise, the beauty encompassed me.

July 12th, 2016 (El Camino de Santiago , Spain)

I just finished day 13, the second day this camino that I walked alone. Even though I was wearing headphones, I still thought a lot. I mainly thought about the people that I have met on this way. I thought about how each of us came with different background stories & different expectations. How our problems are all so different & were all thinking about different things that are on our hearts. And then how we will all leave & either return to the lives we came from or change and adjust.

And I thought about how life changes. And we go in and out of different phases in our lives & people come & go. And some people are around longer than others, and you connect with some people better than others. How we are all moving at our own pace & if you’re lucky enough, you find people who are moving at the same pace as you, who you stay with until the end.

I am staying in the nicest, cutest albergue in in Hontanas. I had a 31K day & I am exhausted. This albergue is very mom & pop with only 12 beds. But the showers are wonderful, the beds are divine, and there is soap & towels!! It’s amazing how much there is to appreciate. I miss my friends but alone time is very needed.