I work at a summer camp. Monday through Friday, I spend my days playing with kids in the water, helping organize outdoor games and activities, sitting in a lifeguard chair and eating lunch with my campers on the side of a hill.

I endure the uncomfortableness of wearing a swimsuit for over eight hours, sunburns, bug bites and grass and dirt stains on every single item of clothing I own.

I have gotten heat exhaustion, shivered for hours on end during my lifeguard certification course and been down poured on numerous times.

But even with all that in mind, I wouldn't trade my time outside for a summer spent behind the screen of a TV or phone.

In fact, I spend a lot of my time off still outdoors. I enjoy canoe trips with my dad, bonfires with my friends and hikes with whoever will adventure with me.

I gave up on Snapchat streaks and focused more on catching sunsets.

I traded time spent in air-conditioned buildings for the freedom that can only be obtained a little ways away from all of the fancy technology we have.

I am a kid who scrapes her knees and stains her clothes. I am a kid who gets home and immediately naps because I pushed myself to the point of exhaustion throughout the day. I am a kid who has no qualms about jumping in a lake instead of a pool and I am better for it.

Technology is pretty freaking awesome, I'll be the first to admit. It has advanced society on many levels. But we seem to be on a downward spiral of forgetting what life away from it is like.

To put down our phones and enjoy a banter-filled mealtime is a joyous experience that not many often experience anymore.

To see the world through our own eyes rather than a camera lens is crucial to our understanding of the natural world and reality as well as to our independence from our devices.

This is one of a million reasons why I love what I do more than anything. I love getting such an experience and giving it back to kids who still believe in the magic of the world.

Who hasn't been burdened with the negativity of society and the current events crises occurring all around us?

Who gets to just be kids if even for a moment—laughing and running and being the good the world needs so desperately.

I'm a kid who loves to see the snow and smell the air after a fresh rain. I'm a kid who runs outside when it's pouring sometimes to feel the rain on my skin (thanks Natasha Bedingfield).

I'm a kid who likes the smell of campfire on my clothes better than perfume and who will play in the sand without a thought of whether or not I'll get my shoes dirty.

It's a combination of my time spent at summer camp along with the ample time I spent outside as a child, playing with the neighborhood kids or camping with my family. It stems from my fondness for trail running and my admiration for nature.

Whatever it stems from, I understand that in order to meet our goals to feel something, we don't have to look very far. We just have to step outside the door.

People use technology because they want to feel validated, they want immediate, they want a virtual reality that wows them.

But why search for constant validation when after leaving it alone for a while, we can train ourselves off the need to constantly be validated.

Why go to the internet for immediate when getting outdoors is ridiculously immediate?

Why search for virtual realities to capture our attention when the reality of the world around us can provide us with awe-inducing experiences?

A mountain doesn't just crash like our servers. An ocean doesn't glitch one day and need repair by some stranger before we can look at it again.

And habits form over time. So if we want to be less addicted to our phones, we need an alternative. And that alternative could very easily be a dose of nature, to lower our obsession with materialism and humble our egos every once and awhile.

So go outside. Whenever and wherever you can—go outside and enjoy it.