Working in a restaurant during the summer is hot, loud, physically demanding and irritating. The restaurant in which I worked during the hottest months of the year was particularly unbearable due to the lack of air conditioning and the presence of a roaring fire that the manager insisted on having every night. When moving from the dining room to the kitchen, one could feel no difference in temperature. However, a perk of working there is that the restaurant is nestled right beside the biggest lake in Glacier National Park, Montana, and the frigid water inside comes straight from melting glaciers. This giant, inviting ice bath surrounded by looming mountains was especially enticing on those nights that it was nearly intolerable to do my job. Floating on my back, dangerously far out in the lake spying shooting stars in the sky that looked like a piece of black cloth on which someone had spilled several tablespoons of salt is one of my favorite memories.
This memory has not been exaggerated in my mind at all. I feel the same sense of belonging and lighthearted freedom now as I did when I was floating in the water two months ago. This memory, along with many others that I acquired over the summer, brought an enormous change to my identity. It spurred a fearless want for adventure, and a burning desire to climb to the top of every mountain in sight. My days in Montana made me forget about the superficial luxuries of everyday life and appreciate the vast playground of the Earth.
Lauren M. -012
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