Personal Narrative: Life Is For Living

Life is a hard concept for everyone. It is not easy until you realize that it is not for pondering, but for living. Soren Kierkegaard puts it this way, “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” In simpler terms this means that life is for living. I perceived this idea on an annual ski trip with my family.

Every year we make the long, 6 hour drive to Beech Mountain, North Carolina. We left school at noon and arrived around 5:30. The majority of the ride up was spent either head down in a device, or asleep. As we were scaling the mountain on the windy roads, my siblings and I were informed that we would not be able to use our devices for the majority of the trip with the exception of taking pictures. Of course,

I always perceived him to be the best but not in this case. His fall resulted in him being him twisted like a pretzel but in a blink of an eye he was back up. Back at the bottom, we hopped back in line for another run. This cycle continued until dusk, when we decided it was too dark and cold to ski any longer. Instead of going out to eat, we went straight back to the cabin for some good ol’ peanut butter sandwiches with Lay’s potato chips. Along with this, we treated ourselves to some hot chocolate and for dessert, some sleep. We were all worn out and sleep is all we

Instead of just sitting inside all day, we decided to take a ride through Valle Crucis, a small town in the valley between Beech and Grandfather mountain. I thought a fully stocked pantry was the most beautiful thing in the world until we were in the valley. Throughout the whole trip I was thinking about being back in Peachtree City but it wasn’t until then that I had a reality check and realized that nothing mattered other than where we were right then. I was mesmerized by the almost-impossible-to-describe scene. The rain had stopped and the sun came out from hiding behind the clouds. The green pastures glistened in the sunlight while the flowers danced in the wind. Everything was so calm. Everything was so beautiful. Everything was so perfect. There was nothing like it that I had seen before or would ever see again. We continued through the valley and just decided to return back to Georgia. The whole time, I enjoyed looking out the window at everything I would be missing if I had my phone. It wasn’t long until I fell asleep. When I woke up, we were in the driveway of our home, back in Peachtree City. I wondered if everything had been a dream but I was certain I had just experience life “outside of your phone” as my parents would put it.

To this day, I continue to just experience life and what it has in store. If it wasn’t for that single trip, I would not understand or even believe