Do more of what you love

On August 7th I’m heading out to Cimarron, New Mexico. It will be my third time backpacking at the Philmont Scout Reservation. I was 15 the first time I went and 26 this time around. After this trek I will have hiked around 200 miles during my time there. Having grown up in New York, spending a few weeks in the mountains of New Mexico opened my eyes. First of all, I had no idea that scrawny 15 year old me could carry all of that gear over 60+ miles. The trip also gave me my first 'raw' view of nature; from mountains in the sunrise to a deer that had been mauled by a mountain lion. The first night sky I saw revealed a blanket of stars that are hidden in New York City. Finally comprehending the sheer vastness of it humbled me. Unfortunately a few months later I received the news that my neighbor, a fire-fighter, had perished on September 11th. I was devastated for quite some time after that. While it has never been easy to deal with, it certainly shaped who I am today.

I feel like I'm lucky to have had that "Oh... the universe can be dumb and sometimes I can't control everything" moment so early. Your life is what you make of it and you won't get far if you fear the unknown. That said, I'd like to request that you do the two following things. They're easy, I promise :)

Get your friends together and go on a hike! If you've never gone on one, I'm urging you as much as possible to do this one! The feeling of reaching a summit is tremendous.

Most importantly: Do more of what you love.


Pat Cartelli
@shnoobles
Queens, NY

Comments

Post a Comment

Favorites

This is a puzzle.

Beyond this message a challenge awaits; In the listserve, no links are allowed, what a cruel fate! The first clue must be deciphered by ROT 8. . Let me know and just email if your brain needs a spark Your first clue is just after this punctuation mark / dsoqwj vwxwfvafy lge jgtafkgf af lg cadd s egucafytajv Listserve Puzzle listservepuzzle[AT]gmail.com
Read more

21,612 is a lot

Hi, everyone. I'm a teenaged girl. I'm not arrogant enough to think that I know much about the world. I'm 18, a freshman in college, and I struggle every day trying to see into the future: into what might be, where I might go. Recently I've decided that my destiny in life is to be a high-school biology teacher, but ask me again later and perhaps that will have changed. One thing I feel passionate about is body modification. Somehow my standards of beauty have developed in a way that put piercings, tattoos, implants and scarification at the forefront. However, my parents have threatened to cut off their funding for my education if I modify myself in any way. I already have piercings, and though my family will never see them due to their private locations, I would love to be able to share this important part of my life with them and express myself through modification in a more public way. Essentially, they have rejected my lifestyle, and through this, they have ...
Read more

Tiny wings

Hi all, I want to write about a subject that is very close to my heart - bees! I started bee keeping last year, and have two colonies right now. These two already managed to supply my family and my friends with more than enough honey, and keeping the bees is a tremendously satisfying activity. They smell so good, and are very tidy animals, and are just very, very interesting overall. The insects' way of dealing with the world is just so very different from how we as mammals approach it - it seems almost alien. Anyways, what is probably most impressive is the workload these little animals deal with. For one kilo of honey, they visit 4 million flowers, and fly a distance equivalent of more than 4 times around the earth. Think about that for a second. And then, if you start to think about how they "furniture" their housing themselves by the wax they sweat out, how they can control temperature inside the hive to the tenth of a degree, how they collectively make decisions i...
Read more