Congratulations to Julie Cursi for Winning the September 2024 Barefoot Writing Challenge! (Your $100 prize is on its way!)
The challenge was to write an essay that answered this prompt:
Which has been the best year of your life so far? Explain why.
Julie shared a riveting tale about an adventure few get to have. Enjoy her winning submission:
The Bittersweet Symphony of an Exceptional Year
I have heard that comfort is poison. I agree, because the best year of my life was anything but comfortable.
On a chilly spring morning in 2019, a tiny song sparrow belted out his bold song, and I walked across a clinic parking lot to my car with the best news ever. I was free to go.
For years, I had dreamed of taking a rugged trip to the country Sir David Attenborough described as “a curious wonderland… an unrepeatable experiment, a set of animals and plants evolving in isolation for over 60 million years. We’re still trying to unravel its mysteries.”
In 2019, I met Madagascar. She was the country of my dreams, and I experienced her as ruggedly as I could. I traveled alone from the United States to a campsite in St. Luce to volunteer alongside researchers as they worked to protect and restore the land and the people.
I was healthy, and my feet were on the ground in Madagascar. I was exhilarated and terrified at the same time. It was the best year of my life because I had never felt so alive.
Like a blowtorch to my back, Madagascar reshaped me. She taught me how to sleep on the ground of an untamed land and eat the beans-and-rice diet of a sometimes-starving village. She taught me to quiet my panic during raucous village rituals I didn’t understand.
Madagascar was no longer teeming with animals. She had been brutalized by the world’s demands. She carried the burden of being unique, beautiful, resource-rich, and perpetually hunted. She had been almost thoroughly consumed but not left for dead.
A handful of angels were committed to restoring her dignity. Inch by inch and year by year, they worked to protect what remained of her, replenish her reserves, and sew her back together. I got to volunteer side by side with these amazing people!
My dance with Madagascar wasn’t comfortable. It wasn’t easy. It was even terrifying sometimes. She showed me what it means to exist in the outskirts of comfort. She made me push the limits of pain and fear even while she herself lay mortally injured.
Through my journey I grew much stronger. I couldn’t wait to share the stories with my mom. Would she see how much I had grown? At the time, I didn’t realize how much her attention gave meaning to my accomplishments.
As it turns out, the best year of my life prepared me for the worst year of my life.
Several years later, I found the strength to carry my mom through a horrible illness. In the end, I had to usher her to her grave. I lost her. I kind of wanted to crawl into the grave with her.
As for adventures since Madagascar, like Schrödinger’s tree, I wonder if they even happen if my mom isn’t there to hear all about them.
