To celebrate your 21st birthday, we wandered to where the wifi is weak — to a place where there is no cell phone service — to a place where no drones are allowed — to a place where the environment is respected as self — to a campsite in Big Sur called Treebones, a 5 hour drive South from San Francisco.
We went to Treebones because we needed to be close to you. You always had a call for the wild. After your first fling with Mt Sugarloaf in Arkansas, you dreamt of expanding further to meet more mountains. You dreamt of a community of people who care, really care, about the environment. You made that dream your reality when you earned acceptance into University of Colorado at Boulder. You worked hard, turning your passion into high grades, athletic achievements, and most importantly, human connections.
Brother, we learned from you that the people around us are just as much a part of the environment as the trees, ocean, bugs, or sky. Environmental awareness means being a devoted steward of the nature we love so deeply, but it also means caring deeply about the humans with whom we interact, including ourselves.
We collected jade rocks from the beach to to add to your rock collection headstone next time we visit home.
- Savy and Moni
Our camp site was literally off the map.
