Before I Left The Woods

I don’t think there are any right words to describe the experience that was NELP. It was a complete shift in my perspective on learning, on reading, and most importantly the world and how I have a place in it. It is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; one that, I could never find myself regretting. It was 45 days spent in the woods without any outside interaction — no phones, no internet, just completely unplugged. The places we explore, the people we meet along the way, and the literature we both read and wrote will be engraved in the edges of my mind from here on out - along with scrawled on the pages of the journals we created. That’s a funny thing to admit for something so short yet so impactful. At best, I could describe it as living and breathing in the space between; timeless.

Time worked differently here. We abandoned traditional time keeping and went by our nine day weeks at camp. Within each division of the weeks I spent in the woods, you’ll find some of the entries that make up the start and end of the journals I filled with every thought, emotion, question, and observation.