At the Edge of My World

I said I didn't want to write more but I wasn't being truthful. I'm just tired but can't seem to stop thinking.

Cape Flattery was one of the things I most wanted to see on our tour of the Pacific coast. I saw pictures of it online and after doing some research, found out what and where it was.

When it comes to travel, I like a good challenge. I like to see things not many others have and to experience epic beauty because it builds me up inside somehow. I want to appreciate God's beauty and see him in what I see with my own eyes. There really is something special about taking a long journey and finally reaching your destination. Once you step out of the trees and onto the cape, you realize how far you have come and are in awe of the scenery. The waves crashing, the blue green water, the fierce wind and rain... it all becomes a force that inspires and terrifies you at the same time.

Sometimes I truly have no words to speak of what I have seen and experienced. To physically be in the presence of such powerful beauty makes one feel as if you are but a pebble in a tumultuous ocean, being rocked back and forth and smashed against every surface imaginable.

Dad and I stood at the highest point and looked out at Tatoosh Island, solitary and battered by centuries of storms. I can't tell you how I felt as I stood there with the rain dripping down my face and the wind whipping my hair all over the place.

Moments like these are when you are no longer yourself. You've come exhausted, wet, and emotional to the precipice of a world where you yourself are an alien among the elements. It is hard to feel as if you fit into that sphere, hard to know who you are because you feel so insignificant compared to the massive sea caves, the booming sounds the waves make, and the tall elegant lighthouse as it looks out to sea.

What I am trying to say is moments and experiences like the one I had at Cape Flattery are character building. It takes guts to make a promise to yourself that you will journey to this remote place, hike to the end of your familiar world, and look out at a vast ocean that could take your life in one second should you fall from the cliff where you stand.

Maybe I delve into my emotions and feelings too much when it comes to these things. But it's not just my emotions that rage when my feet take me to places I've never been; my spiritual health is also renewed. As the years go by, part of my well-being depends on travel and experiencing new things. It has become one of the deepest and most important parts of who I am as a person.

The people who lived before me also become part of who I am and how I think. Now, I have a better appreciation for the Corps of Discovery and the absolute agony they went through to accomplish Jefferson's dream. I have been studying about the writers and thinkers of the Enlightenment and why their contribution to our nation is important to who we are.

Captain James Cook who named the cape was also an incredible human being. He was a tough seaman and his efforts to chart unknown continents later expanded the British Empire. Talk about adventure!

All of these men and women were real people and deserve to be considered not only for what they accomplished, but for being human.

There is so much to learn and be and see. I know it is impossible for me to do everything, but I will do my best to keep these promises to myself and continue to appreciate the places and the people who came before me.