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This photo was taken during my high school graduation dinner after a lengthy, one sided conversation with my dad about what career I was planning on pursuing. I was frustrated and unimpressed with the whole idea of careers, as you can clearly tell by my expression. Careers are demeaning ‘twentieth-century inventions,’ more of a liability than an asset, and I would do fine without one (Krakauer 114). My dad disagreed, embodying the rigid materialistic ideology taught in modern day society, that the purpose of life was to work hard and get rich. But life is about more than making money, it is about discovering one's true self which can only be done in nature, away from the unnatural influences of society.

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This photo captures one of the many proud moments I experienced in the wild. Life away from society was liberating and exhilarating, it allowed me to find myself and discover the truths of the universe. Compared to the photo of me at dinner with my family, stuck in the social trappings and obligations of society, I am beyond elated. At long last I was unencumbered, emancipated from the stifling world of my parents and peers, a world of abstraction and security and material excess, a world in which I felt grievously cut off from the raw throb of existence (Krakauer 22). The wild is the only place where you can truly escape the useless obligations of society and focus completely on the true meaning of life and what is truly important in this life.

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Dinner is served! I am often asked what I ate while on my many adventures. Most of the time I relied on God's abundant creation to provide for my next meal. Society pushes us to believe that food is difficult to find and only accessible when packaged and processed, spat out by greedy business tyrants. They don’t want you to experience the freedom and simple beauty of being reliant on only yourself and the nature around you. The truth is that my days were more exciting when I was penniless and had to forage around for my next meal (Krakauer 33). Society chains us down, belittling our self image, making us feel weak and dependent on its corrupted system. Immersing yourself into nature allows you to take a step back and realize that true freedom comes from being self reliant.

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Society has taught us that to be happy means to have a nice house, lots of friends, fancy clothes, and stability. However the very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon (Krakauer 57). By leaving behind our material things, we can have so many new and exciting experiences that allow us to feel the thrill of absolute freedom and build our relationship with nature. Society has made us believe that what we truly desire is comfort, but in reality, being uncomfortable is the only way we can really grow ourselves.

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One of the reasons I loved cross country was because it was about sheer will and natural talent, no one coaching me on what to do. Nuance, strategy, and anything beyond the rudimentaries of technique are a waste of time and effort (Krakauer 111). I refused to be told how I should conform to someone else's idea of what was correct and incorrect. Being in nature allowed me to escape from the constant feedback of how I should live my life and how I should act. Out in the wild, you create your own rules, your own schedule, and your own lifestyle, absolute freedom.

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I’ve always felt deep gratitude towards God for the experiences He has blessed me with. While trapped in the mundane cycle of day-to-day living, it is difficult to appreciate and develop a deep genuine relationship with God. Nature is God's gift to man and by abandoning your inclination for monotonous security and adopting an adventurous lifestyle, you are able to discover all the wonderful things that God has placed around us (Krakauer 57). Nature has allowed me to escape the false love that is promoted in society and instead experience God's true and everlasting love.