This past month, I had the opportunity to travel to the western United States and experience the opposite side of the country. Born and raised in the north east, I had never traveled anywhere close to the west or north west. It would be the furthest west I had traveled to date.

I expected the west to be different, but I wasn't prepared for the experience I had. The very first thing I noticed is how friendly and more slow paced everyone is. No one is in a rush and no one is rude. The airport was small and quaint and had that old cabin feel to it. Once we left the airport, we drove into the mountains. To call the scenery beautiful would be an understatement. We took hundreds of pictures, but not one would do a justice to what we saw. The entire states of Montana and Wyoming were just miles and miles of beautiful snow topped mountains. There were wild horses and wild buffalo and wild deer at every turn.

I've never seen a place so beautiful in my twenty one years of life. The thing that made the west so beautiful is that it's beauty is natural. It's not man made or factory made, it's earth made.

We traveled to Yellowstone National Park and got to experience so many natural geysers and canyons and rivers. The beauty was breathtaking. The animals roaming freely across the west were just as breathtaking as the mountains and trees themselves.

The thing that really impacted me on this trip is how much we miss when we spend our lives in a hustled city. We never realize how beautiful Mother Nature truly can be. We never realize how smart and beautiful animals can be. We never realize how different people in our own country can be.

The reason I recommend that everyone take a trip to the west at some point is due to the experience being humbling. It reminded me so much of how beautiful this planet and this world can be. It helped me to step back from my busy life and just take in the natural world. Some of the scenery we saw was unreal. It looked like we were walking in a painted picture all week. The beauty that the earth can hold is incredible. The trip opened my eyes so much to how much good can be in the world. It helped me to appreciate my country, small towns, the Earth, and all the living being in the world.

The trip was exciting, peaceful, and absolutely incredible and I can't wait for the next time I get to travel to the western United States again!