Call of the mall, I mean wild.

I have never been one for long treks through the wilderness. The idea required a bit too much walking than my laziness was willing to give, and the thought of bug bites alone was too unappealing for my brain to handle. (I shuddered as I typed). Yet recently, perhaps because of these wilderness-centric essays we have been reading in class, I found myself daydreaming about ambling along forest-shaded paths, and marveling over nature at work. The solitude of such a task is daunting, especially for someone like me who enjoys the company of others so, but this urge to experience what others have glorified will not be squashed.

My friend, who is staunchly anti-nature (unless we are discussing organic hair products), snickered at my ideas. "Why would you," he chuckled condescendingly, "leave racks of cashmere and velvet for bark and dirt?" After pondering for a second, he amended his earlier statement, "I guess if you really wanted to go on a picnic, you might go outside. But still, even then, you don't leave your lawn for some trees and bears. That's preposterous!" I'll concede that the notion of meeting a bear is rather intimidating, but I feel compelled to explore this world around me. I have always appreciated it in the forms of shopping centers and artificial parks, yet never in the way that Nature itself intended me to. To do so, I must leave the comfort of modern society and into the unknown of majestic forests and winding mountains.

... Just kidding! Well, sort of. Being a lazy adolescent, I am confined by many restraints, among them my parents' wishes. Although my parents appreciate the outside world enough to plant a few trees (long dead) and plan a few trips (never came to fruition), they would never allow me to go on a hike alone into uncharted forests and live alone in a cabin on top of a forsaken mountain. I don't think they would necessarily stop me either if I decided to pack my bags and order a ticket to Alaska because they know that I would come scrambling home before I ever make it outside the borders of Illinois.

So maybe when I'm older, I'll go on this promised trip. Perhaps someday I'll be able to finally understand these epiphanies that one stumbles upon in solitude and nature. But in the meantime, I'll just have to wait and struggle a bit longer in this mundane life.