The Present is a Present

In the summer of 2018, I decided to go on a trip of a lifetime to Australia for 2 weeks with a teen tour group. The trip consisted of doing different activities each day, some days we would even travel to a different city overnight. The most personally transformative aspect of this trip is the one week that we went camping. John does not live in a typical house, not only does he live in a home without air conditioning or heat, but John’s house doesn’t even have walls. Another unique thing about him is that John lives a technology-free life, other than a small flip phone he only uses when necessary.

“Get off your phones and look around!” He would often encourage us.

He would say that there's so much more to see in the great outdoors than on our screens. I tried my best to be present in the moment and appreciate the amazing place I was in, rather than being distracted by a little black box. I loved trying new things there, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I knew that if I didn’t appreciate every moment of the trip I would regret it later in life. Living like John does for a week really taught me a valuable lesson about appreciating nature.

One night, as we were going to sleep in 8-degree celsius weather, while the bugs and frogs sang loudly, we prepared to snuggle up in a sleeping bag in a hut with no walls, we thanked God that we only had a couple of days left there. Our friend Sofia looked at us

“I’m kinda gonna miss this place, as much as we hated it at first, I kinda learned to love it here”

I think we all pondered about what Sofia had just said, we settled in our scratchy blankets, and instead of drifting off to sleep, my friends and I gathered together and talked for hours. Most nights my friends and I found ourselves in a race to put on as many sweatshirts or layers as we could before bed. On the first night, we were there, my good friend Emily even wore socks on her hands to act as mittens to fight the cold, but this particular night was different. I think that this night was a turning point for me and my group of friends.

As we talked we laughed about things that had happened earlier in the day when John had attempted to teach us how to be “real Australians” by showing us how to play the didgeridoo, crack whips, shoot archery, and more.

That night, we laughed and reminisced together. At first, camping at John’s home had seemed like a teenage girl’s worst nightmare, but as we talked and laughed about everything that had happened, it didn't feel so bad at all. I think that this whole time, we had been being taught the lesson of appreciating nature without even knowing it.

In the morning after the long hours of talking all through the night, we were woken up early in the morning by the (not so) warm sun on our faces. The fresh dew on the grass and the sun coming through the clouds early in the morning was what I noticed first. The land was like no other land I've ever seen. Looking out across the vast field was beautiful. Yes, I had woken up to this same view for the past week, but, for the first time since I had been at john's house, I looked at things differently. I appreciated how beautiful the clouds were and how the light shone through the hut, casting cool shadows on the wood floor.

In a way, Australia’s diverse and beautiful flora and fauna demand our full attention. The powerful biodiversity that I encountered on my trip taught me that appreciating nature is so important nowadays especially with all of the distractions around you, all of the time. My spectacular adventure taught me to be present in the moment and appreciate everything you see because one blink and you just might miss it.