Life is Good

After a dinner under the great Montana sky, watching clouds tumble over our conversations, I left the group for my own exploration. Rapidly I changed clothes and jumped out the door of our temporary home in the University of Montana's dorms. I ran to the eastern edge of campus. There I found a small yellow cottage and, just to the north of it, a small trail. I followed it. The switchbacks were steep and the trail was dusty. There weren't very many people out, as the sun was beginning to set across town. I pushed myself, feeling the burn in my legs and the calories from my dinner float off into the Montana sky. I switched back and forth, back and forth, gradually climbing above the town of Missoula. Memories of my childhood home in Colorado materialized. I recalled many similar hikes with my parents up Skyline Drive, a road that climbed high above our town so we could look down on it below. The same sense of freedom and perspective filled my chest in Missoula. I reached the top of the hill, the end of the switchbacks, and paused at the base of an oversized letter M. Its significance was to mark the University of Montana, which I now looked down upon. The sun was setting behind the town, behind the western mountain range, and filling nomadic cloud formations with a deep red orange glow. I imagined being a rancher roaming the countryside, galloping off into the sunset. Wind blowing through my hair!

After a deep breath and a million tiny inspired thoughts on the meaning of life, I ran back down the hill and on through the campus for a few miles. This was one of those moments where I could throw my head back and say without hesitation, "Life is Good."

By Crystal Olin