5 Life Lessons From The Pages Of My Journal

WE ARE SO IRRELEVANT. How freaking awesome is that? Being in the mountains reminded me that I wasn't needed there. After I left my trip the mountains were still going to be standing tall, the waterfalls were still going to be falling down the rocks, the rivers were still going to be flowing, the sun will come up tomorrow and the moon will come out tonight. Not only would this continue after my trip, but it will continue long after I am gone. The mountains, the water, the sun, the moon, they don't need us. They don't need me to tell them how pretty they are. I am nothing in this space, yet at the same time this space was something I worked very hard to experience. That contrast alone reminded me how small I am in the grand scheme of this world, how irrelevant our problems truly are, and how it's up to us to make life something meaningful.

NOTHING GOOD HAPPENS OVER NIGHT. Looking out on to the many lines and crevices of the mountains led me to think about how many millions of years it took for them to appear. How many glaciers, storms, shifts, etc. did it take for even a single line carved in that mountain to appear. And now millions of people from around the world pay good money to come and stare at the mountains in awe of their beauty. This captures the fact that nothing good happens over night. The beauty of Patagonia did not appear within days, if anything the amount of natural events this land had to endure to stand tall and beautiful the way it did, just proves that enduring hardships and challenges all makes the end result worth it.

LEARNING SPANISH IS HARD. Thats it.

KINDNESS IS OUR HUMAN SUPERPOWER. Throughout all the places I have been, and all the people I have met, the greatest memories are of those who have showed random and genuine kindness. Think about it, you could be having the worst day and a stranger gives you a compliment.. BOOM.. your bad day vanishes and all you can think about is how nice that random comment was. When you really think about it, how amazing that we have ability to completely change the trajectory of someones day, trip, life! Just through a simple act. The best part is, we all have this superpower as well.

LISTEN TO PEOPLE... NOT STEREOTYPES. The news does a great job at making different places, people, and cultures appear in certain ways to fulfil a multitude of objectives. Ultimately this leads to a number of harmful stereotypes forming, which change the way people interact with the world. Traveling to destinations that result in "how do your parents feel about this?" reactions have driven me to ask the question, why? For people who have never visited the place either, why do they know so much about the negative parts of a country? What they know is from what media tells them. If we believed everything we hear, we'd never leave our house. I challenge you to listen to people who are born in/live in a place, listen to them to understand their culture, language, and country.