We had been in the Andes for ten days without news from home when our driver arrived with a bewildering story about a plane, a football stadium, and 30,000 people dead.

I thought I knew my little brother. Then he told me his bucket-list dream was to meditate in the King's Chamber inside the Great Pyramid of Egypt. His answer introduced me to a side of him I'd never seen.

After 1,400 miles of hiking north, I was no longer wondering whether I could reach Canada. I was wondering why I was still walking. That's when a young doe stepped onto the trail behind me.

Nearly 800 miles into hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, I discovered I wasn't just walking north. The trail had given me something I hadn't realized I'd been missing: spaciousness.

I don't remember deciding who I needed to become. I only remember living as though it were true