Jimmy LeSage Memorial Scholarship

Wellness is not eating healthy or staying physically active. While going for runs or hikes makes me feel healthier, I don't believe that is what wellness truly is. To me, wellness is the feeling of being truly blissful with who you are as a person. Eating a banana rather than a cookie, dragging yourself to get physically active when you would rather sleep, or even experiencing the touch of the peacefulness of nature is not what can define someone's wellness. These are merely examples of activities that by doing, will increase the feeling deep within that allows you to accept who you truly are. A prominent example of this in my life was the last day of my junior year of high school. It was only a half day of school and everyone in my class was more anxious than a first-time stage performer, waiting for the bell to signal the end of a hard-fought battle between checking test grades and maturing into a young adult. The school year was finally over and everyone rushed out of the building hoping not to have to go back again until the days left in summer break dry up like a puddle in the desert. Everyone had parties planned for the night and video games that they wanted to play. I was in the exact same boat as the rest of them. Then I got an itch. There was something in me that told me that I needed to act now or it might be too late. My soul was telling me that I needed to do something for myself. I needed to do something that would bring wellness to my mind, body, and soul. Rather than take the right hand turn out of school to go home and play video games, I decided to take a left. Then another. I knew where I was going, but I didn't quite know why. I drove all the way to the edge of town and to the end of a road called Notch Road. Here there is a trail. It is called the Bald Mountain Trail. I got out of my truck, leaving everything behind but the clothes on my back. I knew that where I was going I didn't need my phone or my wallet. I made my way up the trail and admired how green the leaves on the trees were. I had never noticed the beautiful shade as much as I noticed it at this moment. I continued my way to the top of the trail, but right as I was about to reach the top of the hike like I had done many times before, I decided to stop. I looked around for a second and turned into the woods off the trail. I made my way a few hundred yards into the woods and decided to finally come to rest next to a tree. I sat by that tree and thought to myself. I thought about my friends, my family, my teachers, and anything else a high school boy thinks about. I sat there for almost an hour when I decided to lie down next to the tree. That's when I started thinking deeper. As I stared at the treetops swaying in the wind, I thought about myself. I thought about who I am. I thought about who I wanted to be. I sat, and I thought, for hours. I can't quite say how long, but the sun was preparing for another cold summer night when I decided to get up. As I walked down the trail, I was no longer thinking. I was feeling. I was finally feeling wellness. After sixteen years on this planet, this was the first and only time I have ever felt properly content with myself. I have tried many times to recreate the feeling I had that afternoon with no luck at all. When I arrived home that night it was like a light switch, when everything went back to normal. I no longer felt wellness and had no physical evidence for what had just happened to me. All I had and still have is the memory of what I felt like that afternoon.