This Is Me Forever

Hey guys! I’ve got something a little bit different for you today. A few weeks back, I was asked to speak to a group of middle school students down at Kent Denver School. As a byproduct of our conversations that day, the class began a competition: each student {or group of students} was tasked with writing a blog post on anything to do with the outdoors. Then, everyone voted and the best post got to be published on my site.

Today is that day! The winner is Lindsi Reyes. Lindsi is a seventh grade student and Colorado native. Growing up in Aurora as the oldest of two brothers, Lindsi is proud of being bilingual, Hispanic, and passionate about being outdoors. Her earliest memories of getting out of the city meant long road trips with her parents, but that all changed last year when she challenged herself to a twelve mile hike on her sixth grade outdoor education overnight. Lindsi described the experience as “hard, but so satisfying.” Since then, Lindsi has been blazing trails across Colorado, taking every opportunity she can to experience the outdoors and, in her words, “feeling so lucky to be alive and appreciate the world around me.

Here is Lindsi’s poem. Enjoy!

********************

This is me forever

Backpacking, trail-running, hiking: anything that takes place outside where nothing is artificial is where my natural self comes out. The time capsule below is me opening up to my home. This isn’t just one instance; this represents two-thirds of my life. When I am outside, I feel alive, centered, wild. I wrote this because I know that even though I am going through the process of finding out who I am, this is a solid part of me that I will never question. I like that. I will never let go of this concrete passion. Since the moment I was exposed to these real things–to the many adventures that await me–this is me forever. 

Day floats into night

The sunset colors fade into the deep starred night

When the soil beneath my feet becomes part of me

Who you are?

Who we are?

Who am I?

Because the laughing witnessed by the trees of that picnic

Becomes everything I want for love and belonging

When the drops turn into showers and the whole sky starts to cry

The footprints left by the trail-runners disappear

I know this is the missing part of my puzzle

The fresh breeze kisses my cheeks,

I know

I know this is where I belong

I know this is what I want to be

part of  

The sun’s rays hug me

The lullaby of wind passing through the the leaves wiggles my ears

This is my place, this is where I’m from

This is so much more than me

This place extendeds my happiness

This place is me

The grass belongs to my feet

The trees are my legs

The mountain is my body

My arms embraces the sky

The sun circles my head

And that gleam around darkness fills my eyes

Here I am

And here I will stay.

********************