Every good thing in life doesn’t shout out, “Look at me! Look at me!”

 

I think that’s what makes this season of Thanksgiving and merriment so important: it’s a time for reflection. It’s a time to look back on the last year of your life and actively seek out the good things you’ve been given, the things you’ve learned or the important things that have happened to you. It’s a time to count the ways – however big or small – in which you’ve been shown kindness or love or friendship. It’s a time to take hold of the light and harness it for the depths of winter.

 

 

While working on this campaign, I’ve realized this outdoor recreation and conservation program has been with me for my entire life, giving me spaces to run and hike, to think and heal, and to learn about the natural world around me. 

 

It was with me every Sunday that my younger brother and sister had a youth soccer game at the Ed Meyer Recreation Complex in Titusville, PA. It was there when I had the opportunity to intern with the U.S. Forest Service as a Biological Surveyor for the Jake’s Rocks Epic Mountain Bike Trail in the Allegheny National Forest. It even followed me to graduate school in Boone, North Carolina, when the first hiking trail I ever went on was the Glenn Burney Trail in Blowing Rock, an LWCF-funded site. 

 

 

For that, I am forever grateful.