Backcountry Living (Part 2)

It’s been over a month since my backpacking trip with Point Loma students, and I am still in awe of everything that happened. While the last post explained what we did, I wanted to share a bit about what the trip was like. Again, I’ll try my best to put this into words.

Have you ever experienced a moment or an instance where you thought, “I could do this for the rest of my life”? Where you realized, “This is who I am and who I was created to be”? For me, this trip was that moment.

In one week, I saw lives changed and hearts opened. I watched as a group of fifteen people came together from all over the country, traveled through the wilderness, cooked for each other and learned to trust one another. All without showering for about a week! I think one of the most amazing parts of this trip was the bond that formed within our group. I think it would have been easy to spend six days in the Sierras, do some crazy things, have some laughs and then all go our separate ways. And the journey would have ended there. Instead, we chose to be honest, open and authentic with one another and create a close-knit group that supported and accepted each another. That takes a huge amount of courage and I was so encouraged to see both students and leaders take that risk. A lot of us faced our fears on this trip, whether that was climbing a mountain, making new friends or letting other people see us at our worst.

Throughout the trip, everyone had the opportunity to share his or her life story and then the rest of the group could ask that person any number of questions. One night, my friend Josh threw out this intense question: “Describe your soul country.” I thought about that idea for days after and I realized that I was living in my “soul country”: backpacking through the wilderness, spending time with teenagers, hearing their stories, laughing at stupid jokes and realizing how dorky I can be. I felt at home. I believe that God gave me a glimpse of the vision and calling he has for my life, and how he has created me to combine my love of counseling, outdoors and adolescents all into one. I felt alive, energized, challenged, fulfilled…and so grateful.

More to come…

Much love,

alair