Over the break, I had the opportunity to travel to Fairbanks, Alaska. In September, my boyfriend moved there for a job, and I hadn’t seen him since then, so I knew it would be an exciting trip regardless of the actual destination.
After my 19-hour travel time to Fairbanks warped into 37 hours due to mechanical issues, I was feeling pretty down on Alaska. It was too far out of the way and far too much of a hassle to get there.
But the first full day I was there, my boyfriend took me up to a lookout spot on top of a hill, and it was incredible and, quite literally, breathtaking. It took my breath away in a way that I forgot could happen. Gazing out at mountains — something I had never really seen before — in a degree of coldness I had never felt before in a place I had never been, I experienced a truly perfect moment, as cheesy and cliché as it sounds.
While I was in that moment, though, I also felt kind of sad at the fact that I had forgotten what it was like to feel truly enraptured by something. I think it’s something a lot of us forget when we get caught up in our hectic lives, sprinting to the next moment without thinking about the one we’re in.
I’m hardly trying to say we all need to put down our cell phones and go out and experience nature — while I stood on that hill I was texting my mom, with full bars, so I don’t think I can say I was off the grid. Plus I don’t really expect nature to affect you in the same way as it did me.
What I am trying to say is that we need to remember what it’s like to have our breath taken away. Maybe it’s from an enthralling view, maybe it’s from something you create yourself or maybe it’s something else entirely. But you have to remember to let those moments affect you.
Because really, that’s what life is. It’s those moments — those singular, perfect, thrilling moments — strung together by a whole lot of ordinary moments. Not every day is going to be extraordinary, but you have to remember those that are to get you through those that aren’t. For a long time last semester, I forgot about those times when your breath catches and you don’t really find words to describe what you’re feeling.
Just that one moment over break reminded me, and I’m glad because now I get to look forward to the next one.
Nicolien Buholzer is a senior studying journalism and the Managing Editor of The Post. What takes your breath away? Email her at nb360409@ohio.edu.
