Owen

Zion National Park

November 12, 2020

Took this photo today during a break on my way to Angels’ Landing. While I was there a young man asked me to take his photo. In light of Covid I try to avoid such situations, but I had my Purell and he was by himself.

We sat back down and started talking. “First time here“ turns into “I’m from Virginia, too” turns into ... you guessed it, he’s a 2018 Wahoo. That turned into a discussion about the growth of Cville which morphed into he was a computer science major, is making good money but doesn’t feel fulfilled.

Since he was looking for counsel, I jumped into my “how will you measure your life?” discussion. He was game so I threw in how kids his age often pursue “things” that won’t bring lasting happiness. When I said “there’s a lot of pressure on you youngsters to be masters of the universe at 24,“ he nodded in agreement. Hopefully I burst that fallacy for him. I told him it is ok to jump jobs to help him find what he wants to do. We ended up talking about putting first things first and checking in with himself every couple of months to make sure he hasn’t started to sacrifice what’s important for short-term “gain.”

He truly seemed to appreciate my perspective. As for me, it felt really good to have a dialogue with him. It helped reinforce in me that I have become a different person than the one who used to do things I thought I others expected me to do. I cringe writing that last sentence.

As he got up to leave, he introduced himself. His name was Owen.

More on my hike in my next post. It was a workout. 🤪

m