Note: Julia was the winner of Ely Outfitting Company’s first annual Boundary Waters Teen Essay Contest in 2018. She was 16 years old and a sophomore at Minnetonka High School in Minnetonka, Minn., at the time. Following her essay being selected that year, she journeyed with three friends for a week in the BWCA.

Growing up, my family and I smiled as we teased my dad for his obsession with the Boundary Waters, with his trademark phrase “Speaking of the Boundary Waters…” following all sorts of unrelated topics.

As a senior in college now, I have discovered that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Though my studies have led me down the path of medicine, my personality and mindset remain entrenched in the Boundary Waters. This morning, while discussing my upcoming application to medical schools, my advisor recommended that I write one of the most meaningful parts of my application about the Boundary Waters, given the wilderness’ enduring prominence in my life.

My connection to the wilderness was first planted during snowy family dinners as I watched my dad’s eyes light up as he detailed the routes we would take and planned our meals. Come spring, I followed instructions with alacrity and joy as our paddle strokes led us into the mysterious wilderness. I explored reverently, marveling at the beauty of small things like the ancient lichen living on the rocks, among large things like the majestic trees and birds calling above. Over the years, my dad no longer had to butt in to transition to “Speaking of the Boundary Waters,” because I was a step ahead of him, reminiscing on laughter around the campfire or the bitterness of a seemingly never-ending portage. Every year, I yearned for the disconnect from trivialities like social media and the deeper connection to the beauty of the Earth. As I grew through the tumultuous years of middle school, the wilderness was integral to my identity and taught me important skills, like knowing when to climb a tree to get some alone time.

In 2018, the first annual Ely Outfitting Company Teen Essay Contest for a parent-free trip into the BWCA provided an outlet for the connection I had spun between my experience with cancer and the lessons I learned from the wilderness. I remember seeing an ad for the contest in the newspaper one morning and being struck by a feeling of recognition. I wrote breathlessly, piecing together my shifting identities as a cancer patient and an adventurer. Weeks later, I learned I had won the contest while receiving proton radiation treatments at the Mayo Clinic. With the end of my treatments in sight, I shifted my focus to a new goal: Lead an adventure in my favorite place!

My trip was a culminating moment, enabling me to thank my closest friends: the wilderness itself and the girls who journeyed with me through my treatment and now into the Boundary Waters. Our trip was filled with smiles amid classic obstacles like wrong turns and malfunctioning shoes held together with duct tape.

This incredible opportunity for a parent-free BWCA trip became a major source of leadership development, as I led more parent-free trips to the Boundary Waters with friends and cousins,  and advocated for policies at the state and federal level by leading other passionate youth through my involvement on the board of the Kids for the Boundary Waters, a subgroup of the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters.

As for my dad, to both his pleasure and chagrin, my greater independence in the wilderness meant I went on fewer trips with him for a while. On our most recent trip, our tone of working together shifted to that of two adventurers, enabling us to both fully enjoy the wilderness, even as we waited out the only deluge of the entire summer of drought, knowing our creativity would make it work in the end. When the rain stopped, we paddled on and were rewarded for our patience by reaching a perfect campsite right around the corner. Such persistence is a classic example of the values the wilderness has taught me and that I carry with me always.