Nature: THe greatest teacher
I never put in for giveaways. Either because they live under a paywall, I think they are scams, or I don't want people to laugh at me as I repost on my Instagram story. But for whatever reason, I put in for Scott Stones giveaway. While in the Tetons, I was taking a break from hiking in search of Great Gray Owls. I pulled out my phone to answer some messages, and hopped on Instagram to see what my friends were up to. That's when I saw many of my friends sharing the Scott Stone Photography giveaway post. After doing some reading, I entered, and shut off my phone to start cooking me some gourmet ramen in my Jetboil. I remember vividly spending a few seconds daydreaming how incredible it would be. But I quickly put aside my hopes and brought myself back to reality.
About a week passed by and I had pretty much forgot about it. While at work I felt my watch buzzing over and over again only to look down and see the first message from my good friend Lydia saying "YOU WON THE ALASKA TRIP??!!" Now that was an out of body experience. Rushing over to my phone, pulling open instagram, to see a message from Scott affirming that it was true.
Before I knew it I was pulling into an Airbnb on the iconic island of Kodiak Alaska. Only a twelve hours earlier I was giving my wife a kiss goodbye and hugging my mom at the airport. I was not prepared for the unparralleled beauty I would see the next day.
One of the greatest things I learned from this trip is that there are so many more important things in life than much of what we put focus and attention to. One way I want to illustrate this is how my thoughts towards social media changed.
It's well known to us already that social media is not always the best thing for us and that it isn't important in the overall grand scheme of living. I have been told that over and over again my whole life. But as a wildlife photographer/photographer in general, I could not escape the feeling that Instagram growth was important. Whether it was because I knew having more followers would give more opportunities or because I wanted to be taken more seriously by other wildlife photographers. This trip would finally release me from those shackles.
As soon as I stepped out of the floatplane and looked up at the landscape, my perspective of life began to change.
There I was...on the beach of the Alaskan Peninsula. Surrounded by snow capped mountains and volcanoes. Watching as a couple Bears bobbed in the Ocean cooling themselves from the warm day. Hearing The cracking and roaring of a glacier and startup of the Dehaviland Beaver on its way back to Kodiak. Then most importantly, greeted by an amazing group of people whom I would later consider to be role models for life.
After this, and a few more days of witnessing bears fish, clam, graze, nurse, etc. I realized there is so much more to life than the small things that we let consume us. Life is about having tangible experiences. When I got home, I had no voice in my head saying "hurry, you need to be posting stories or creating your first reels." In fact I remember thinking to myself "If I posted my favorite photo from that trip and not a single soul saw it, I genuinely would not care." What an absolutely freeing feeling to have, and this was just one small part of how this trip helped me change for the better.
Sadly it took traveling all the way to Alaska on my dream trip far from home, to finally learn this lesson. Now, I cannot help but think of how much time we all waste constantly stressing about everything in life, often times on things that don't really matter. Time is BY FAR our most valuable resource, and the more we spend our time doing things that make us self destructive...well, the more unhealthy we become. We need to be better at taking moments out of our busy lives and just appreciating time around the people that we love and stopping to appreciate the small things. Living in the present and creating tangible experiences is what life is all about. Whether that be something as crazy as a lifetime adventure far from home or just appreciating the sunset on your way home from getting the groceries.
I cannot thank Scott and Jackie Stone enough. They had the best intentions and just wanted to share their love for the bears. They werent in it for the money or publicity. Clearly. I am no Isaac Spotts or Paul Nicklen. I am a random kid from Utah who just had a dream of an Alaskan adventure.