I was invited to spend last week in Zion National Park in Utah with friends from high school whom I hadn’t seen in two years. The invite came via SnapChat and was at first taken to be a joke. I assumed the dates were in August, considering they came so close to the day of the initial invitation, but after some slight miscommunication, I realized the trip was only two days away. Though I had a job, a class, an essay due and plans already in the works, I decided to go.

I had my doubts about whether or not this trip would actually work out. Were these friends going to be the same people I knew in high school, or had life since rendered them unrecognizable? Would I get fired for clearing my work schedule for the entire week with only a day’s notice? Was I even in shape enough to keep up on the trails? Miraculously, everything worked out in my favor. Zion was beautiful, I became much closer than I had ever been to my friends, and I conquered more than 20 miles of insanely cool trails — including Observation Point, the Narrows and Angels Landing (all of which I highly recommend). Oh, and I didn’t get fired.

P.S. Zion has really good soft-serve — just sayin’.