Rocky Mountains National Park<3

What a day today: probably one of the most intense and craziest of my journey so far. And NO, not because I was so hungover after the Halloween party yesterday :D. Rather because I was in the national park that I was most eager to explore in the USA: Rocky Mountains National Park in Colorado. I can tell you, an absolute dream, my absolute highlight and unfathomable beauty.

But how did I end up there without a car?

Yesterday at the Halloween party, I was lucky to meet Lush. Lush was born in India but has been living in the USA since college. Since my two Couchsurfing hosts didn't necessarily want to go to the Rocky Mountains because of their pregnancy, Lush was incredibly nice to offer me a ride there today. And I am infinitely glad that it worked out! We started from Boulder to the Rockies with wonderfully sunny 20 degrees!

During the approximately 90-minute panoramic drive, we first passed Estes Park. Estes Park is an incredibly cute town that is located directly in the Rocky Mountains. The houses are really built into the mountains, the landscape is further characterized by rivers and lakes. There are numerous cafes and restaurants, of course, there are also numerous tourists due to the beauty of the place. If the accommodation there hadn't been so unbelievably expensive, I would have stayed there immediately. If I ever win the lottery and disappear, chances are good that you will find me in Estes Park ;).

The sight of Estes Park alone was simply breathtaking for me. This natural beauty is difficult to capture in pictures or words... I hope I can convey it a little with my photos.

And the wildlife was incredible too: We actually encountered wild moose in Estes Park, who were frolicking in the surrounding lakes and were not at all scared away by us. Magical animals these moose, they radiate such calmness & beauty. You cannot imagine how different it is to experience such animals in free, idyllic nature instead of in a zoo. It is incomprehensible to me how people can eat these beautiful animals in the surrounding pubs.

Simply wonderful this little, idyllic place. If the Rocky Mountains hadn't attracted me so much for quite some time, I don't think I would have wanted to continue driving.

But the sight that awaited us on the drive into the Rocky Mountains National Park was more than worth the journey.

I believe I have never experienced a more impressive natural scenery in my life than in this park: the mountains shining in various colors and formations. The waterfalls and lakes, the animals, the tranquility, the incredible power of nature.

Unfortunately, I am a person who finds it very difficult to let go and rarely forgets everything around me. But while exploring this park, I discovered completely different sides of myself. Incredible, this transformative, powerful force of nature that can influence us humans so strongly. This idyll really moved me to tears, it was a moment that showed me what is worth living for and what really matters. I was more with myself than in most other moments of my life. And Lush was the perfect companion for this trip: he is much more experienced in nature than I am and taught me numerous climbing techniques in the park. We were simply in our element, walking and climbing through the park like little children who know nothing but pure joy of life. This moment is simply indescribable...

I know, many consider me crazy with my nature and movement obsession. But I can only recommend to everyone who feels trapped in everyday stress and keeps losing themselves: Go outside! Look into nature, let go! Meditate, take a walk, run, sit down, observe, be completely with yourself and nature. This can be more helpful than any therapy!

Forgive me or just skip this part if today I'm playing the moral apostle, or rather the moral apostleess ;). But today's day has made it very clear to me how crazy our Western world actually is... and how trivial things determine our lives or at least mine. During our trip, I had a deep conversation with Lush. As I said, Lush comes from India, a country where an unimaginably large number of people live. Theoretically, Lush is lucky; he comes from a wealthier family in India and his parents have given up the 'cast system' (people are divided into classes according to social status/different privileges for individuals depending on cast/no contact between people of different casts) that is still common in rural areas there. But since there are so many Indians, there is an incredible competition among those who want to achieve something. Similar to China, for example, the students are drilled incredibly hard to show the best performance and if possible, to leave the country to pursue a career abroad. I thought that the focus on achievement in Germany was already crazy. But do you know what Lush's everyday life was like as a student? His parents enrolled him in 3 private schools at the same time to absorb as much education as possible. His first school started at 4 am in the morning to absorb education before the obligatory school. His last school ended at 10 pm in the evening to also absorb the full spectrum of education in the evening. Students who want to achieve something in India can sleep a maximum of 3 hours per night to absorb all the education. The price is not only a missing childhood and youth... Lush told me that he went through this system of 3 schools per day with 60 other wealthier students. 11 of these young, actually perfectly healthy people collapsed and died under this pressure. Before the age of 18!! Telling the parents beforehand that one cannot withstand the pressure and has to drop out of school? That doesn't exist there because only performance counts.

Lush was lucky... he was clever, could learn well and was among the best in his country. He got a job here because of his engineering studies and the lack of specialists in the USA. And he earned an unbelievable amount of money at his first job.

His result? Loneliness, unhappiness, depression, and not an ounce more of satisfaction than as a person earning little money. Lush fit perfectly into the system, he achieved everything that many Indians can only dream of: high education, lots of money, emigrating to beautiful America. But when he arrived there, which society saw as the ideal image, he was empty and unhappy, lonely and lost. What did he do? Lush showed me pictures of how he burned his money. He quit his job, took time for himself, traveled, sought help. What changed in his life because of that?

Afterwards, he found another job where he earns much less but has more time to live. He enjoys his current job, less pressure, he can often take a day off, take long weekends and travel, and live very happily with less money.

However, his family and people in his country despise him for that. He no longer fits into the oh-so great pattern of performance and efficiency. For the system, he is a 'bad deviant'. Even though you can feel Lush's pain about being ignored by his family: I have rarely met a happier and more lively person who enjoys every moment so much.

Why am I telling you this individual fate? It moved me incredibly and I recognized so many parallels to our German culture. Of course, competition may be even stronger in India than here. But doesn't our system constantly revolve around the best grades, best performance, and the most money? Don't many of us also want the social recognition of how much money we earn and how dutifully we work many hours? How much time for traveling, relaxing, living, how often does that happen in our society? How much do we cling to material things instead of focusing on the essentials? Thank goodness, few people striving for achievement physically die because of the pressure of the system here. But if we are honest with ourselves, how many of us just function within the system and are inwardly dead?

Lush challenged me to burn a few dollars myself, just to let go. I was shocked at myself how difficult it was for me and how much I myself cling to material trivialities. And today, in nature, I once again felt what actually makes me happy and what we actually are. Today it has become clearer than ever to me: there are some things that I want to change. Of course, it is incredibly hard to act against the societal ideal image and take an alternative path. But I am sure it is more than worth practicing it!

Enough life-changing input for today ;)