I wrote a column before spring break about the necessity of taking vacations while we are in college.
I wrote that just before my drive to Colorado, where I would spend the week hiking the beautiful Flatiron Mountains.
As I stated in the column, I knew how important taking vacations was.
I had no idea how much that trip would change ?my life.
Before my trip, I had always wanted to go on one of the cliché American vacations. I’d daydream about flying to Paris, London ?or Rome.
But now I daydream about hiking through the Smoky Mountains or canoeing the beautiful Minnesotan lakes.
I think about fly-fishing in Montana or looking down into the abyss of the Grand Canyon.
I, like many Americans, never truly understood how grand America is.
And I mean ‘grand’ in every sense of the word.
I honestly don’t think most Americans really get how big our country is.
If you’ve never been on a long road trip, I highly recommend doing so before you die.
I’d always known America was a big country, but I didn’t really understand what that meant until I was four hours into Kansas with another two hours of absurdly flat farmland ahead of me before the Colorado border.
But I’m not just talking about size when I’m speak of America’s grandness. Before Colorado, the biggest natural objects I’d ever seen were the rolling hills of southern Indiana.
I had no idea mountains were so ... massive.
Driving into west Colorado was like nothing I had ever seen.
At first, the mountains are just vague shapes on the horizon.
The snow hadn’t had much of a chance to melt yet, so the mountaintops gleaned a shade of white I didn’t think was naturally possible.
But with every mile I drove, the mountains began to creep up before me.
Before long, I was surrounded by the brushstrokes of the universe. I have never been so awestruck in my entire life.
It only occurred to me the next day that I had been living in the same country as these magnificent towers of rock and dirt my entire life, and I had never known about them.
Sure, I knew about their existence.
But I honestly didn’t truly understand their beauty until I saw them with my own eyes.
This article isn’t meant to insult people from other countries. I’m sure Paris is a very beautiful city, and I hope to see it someday. But I think a lot of Americans romanticize other ?countries.
They see their immediate surroundings every day and think that’s all America has to offer.
But they couldn’t be more wrong.
Regardless of how you feel about her past politics — or her current ones for that matter — America is one of the most awe-inspiring places in the world.
You don’t need to fly halfway across the world to find beauty.
It’s all around you — you just need to look for it.
kevsjack@indiana.edu
