When I tell people that I spent my entire summer living in a tent in the mountains of New Mexico, they tend to express disbelief. People who knew me growing up know me as the girl who was scared of just about everything, whether it be lightning or animals, or even just the wind. Those who know me now know me as a sorority girl who rarely leaves the house without makeup, and who can't live without getting Starbucks at least once a week. However, this summer I hastily decided to throw a bunch of borrowed backpacking gear into a trunk, and piled into my mom's car with my boyfriend for the short drive across the Colorado border to New Mexico, where a life changing experience awaited me.

My boyfriend had been planning on working at Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron New Mexico since we started dating. He'd worked there the summer before, and thus was excited to go back. I hadn't expected to join him, thinking that I was going to spend the summer babysitting and taking classes at the community college near my family's home. However, life has a funny way of taking the path that it's meant to, and exactly three days before I was supposed to arrive, I was hired in the mailroom at the camp. Before I knew it, I was standing in front of a large dorm room like tent, the dusty New Mexico dessert contrasting with the gorgeous mountains just with in reach. I was outfitted in a pair of knee length tan shorts that were too large on my small frame, and a green collard shirt that would be my uniform for the next three months. That moment, when I was introduced to my home for the next three moths, I had no idea of the incredible experiences up ahead.

I'll try to make this a little less of a personal anecdote, and more of a celebration of the vast and beautiful camp I was so fortunate to work at this summer. However, personal experiences do play a role in the celebration of such a fantastic place. I had very little cell service, an eight-hour job, and a boyfriend who was working in the backcountry of the camp, and thus could only contact me through letters. I had meals at certain times everyday, and a group of six coworkers who I would be fortunate to work with and see everyday the entire summer. I automatically became best friends with one of my coworkers who quickly became my tent mate, and who I love more than I can even say. A vast majority of my favorite memories were shared with her, whether it be lying in our beds, talking about our pasts and our hopes for the future, laughing and playing games in the mail room, or her helping to save me when I got lost hiking. I also learned a lot about myself, and my relationship with my amazing boyfriend. When your only source of communication for five to eight days at a time is through writing letters, you learn to cherish the moments you have together, and to actually communicate with each other. I formed such wonderful bonds this summer, whether it be with my kind and loving boss, my other fantastic coworkers, or even the other staff members I encountered. I found a family this summer in everyone I met.

Philmont is also a backpacker’s wonderland. I had never been much of a backpacker before this summer, but now all I want to do is live outdoors. I was able to make my way, a thirty something pound pack on my back, to different staff camps on my off days, where the nicest and friendliest people worked. I learned to love my body, the machine that got me over every peak, and across every trail. I learned to value hard work, as I would help the members who worked at the backcountry camps cook meals and do the dishes. I also learned how to find peace in myself, as I slept on the porches of different buildings of different staff camps, knowing that I would be ok, despite the wildlife and weather I used to be so afraid of.

The three months that I spent at Philmont Scout Ranch were some of the best months of my life. It was hard sometimes, when the bathrooms would be infested with bugs, or I would have a bad day and I couldn't pick up my phone and call my boyfriend, or when tragedy struck midway through the summer. But the community of Philmont is what makes all of the hard and bad times survivable. The community of Philmont is so immense and so loving. Whether it be fellow staff members, who befriend you and support you just minutes after meeting you, or participants who share in the love of the beautiful land that Philmont has, or even past participants who you meet randomly in the real world. Just the other day I was riding the bus, and a fellow student at my university noticed my water bottle that I bought at Philmont. When I told him that I worked there this summer he immediately began talking about how awesome that was and how he loved all of the treks that he took at Philmont, and how it made him so happy to see someone else who loves that place.

So here's to Philmont Scout Ranch. Here's to the Tooth of Time, and Lover's Leap. Here's to Baldy Mountain and Ponil and Trail Peak and Indian Writings and Phillips Junction and Beaubien and Metcalf Station and all of the mountains and backcountry camps that make Philmont, well Philmont. Here's to the place that changed me into a new person, that got me through a dark time in my life, and that now has instilled a love of the outdoors in me that I will never lose. Philmont, here's to thee.