Yesterday I had the opportunity to listen to a doctorate student at a local university talk about the path that he took to get where he is today. He is an emerging astrophysicist, and the origin of his interests is as simple as can possibly be. The summer after his freshman year in high school he went to a Boy Scout camp in New Mexico named Philmont, that was the first place he had ever seen a sky full of stars. The sights of the night sky full of stars led him to wonder about what is out there, and then brought him to the field in which he is studying today. I also had the pleasure of going to Philmont the summer after my freshman year, and although it hasn’t set me on any career paths, it has given me a great deal of other things. 
Philmont is a vast area of mountains in northern New Mexico, and the same adventure that was there in the era of the wild west. At Philmont almost all of the transportation is done by foot, with you backpack, which carries everything you will need for your upcoming week in the wilderness. The pack totals in at around 50 pounds, the total mileage of your journey around 50 miles, so you are essentially carrying 50 pounds up and down mountains. The terrain is rough, and although the mountains are beautiful, they do present somewhat of a challenge, which teach you much more than your average math class. The journey pushes you to your physical and mental limits, and you must learn to rely on yourself and others to complete the task. The most challenging thing that I had to overcome while at Philmont was one day of hiking. On this particular day we had an extra long hike, and the majority was down hill. In my mind I pictures the downhill trek being very easy, but I could not have been more wrong. The downhill hiking is extremely strenuous on your feet and legs, and the 50 pounds on you back only magnifies the experience. The day started early in the morning, and it went until the sun was down. That day of pushing myself to go farther, to go all the way to the finish line, taught me how good it feels to complete a goal. This has been with me ever since that day of hiking, and has brought me to places that I never would’ve imagined, just as the doctoral student never dreamed that his first real glimpse of the stars would lead him to a career studying the workings of our universe.
outdorrsguy 