Describe a hike, long walk, or outdoor experience you have had and explain what it was like physically and mentally. If you have never been on a hike, describe a time when you were outside your comfort zone or had to rely on yourself in a challenging situation. Explain what you learned from the experience.

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 Prompt: One of the most noticeable times where I had a huge outdoor hike was when I went on an 11 day backpacking trip in New Mexico called Philmont over the summer of 2025. This was an extremely hard challenge for me both physically and mentally. For the physical aspect it was hard going up and down mountains and hiking around 10 miles a day with 40-60 pounds on my bag (It changed depending on when we got more food and how much water was in my bag). Having to carry around a lot of weight was hard and caused me problems when I had to go up big hills or travel long distances. There were other problems that I had physically like my boots weren't broken in yet, so I had to break them in while I was on the trail, this meant that for the first couple days my feet were in a lot of pain, but once they broke I was fine and didn't have many other problems. Though there was a physical side there was also the mental aspect of believing in my self and understanding that I was able to do all of the trails if I tried hard enough. The main problem I had was in the beginning all I wanted to do was go home and not have to do all this exhausting work, and because of that I wasn't able to enjoy what was around me, but after a while I started to enjoy the nature and understand why people did this. Overall I had to go over many physical and mental challenges to do this, but in the end I learned a lot and finally started to enjoy myself. 

Summary: Today we talked about hiking. 

Reflection: When it comes to physical and mental challenges and how people have to face them, it can be very difficult to overcome them. When you are facing a problem it is hard to look at the good things that are happening around you and people really focus on only the bad parts. But when you take a step back and look at the big picture you can see the beauty in the things that were around you, and understand that if that problem had not happened how it would have changed your experiences for good or for bad. 

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