Nothing Short of Pure Beauty

It was a Thursday in mid November, and class was in session. I on the other hand was not. Three of my friends and I had decided it was time for a trip, and not the vacation kind. Our lives were becoming dull and repetitive, so we needed to stir things up a bit. Little did we know how drastically the events that followed would change our world.

It was 2pm and my friend had just arrived with the mushrooms, he had a grin on his face. So I took a closer look. The caps were gigantic, golden, and metallic… nothing short of pure beauty. And the stems, I dare not speak of their perfect color and sheer size.

And so began the festivities… we each ate a whole cut, and I quickly examined the friends I was with and determined that this day would be one to remember. It was Cody the crazy stoner, and my partner in crime. We played hockey together all through high school, and had just recently both moved out to Pittsburgh. With him was his good friend Paul who was just an overall good guy. And then there was me, just a guy trying to figure it all out and live my life free of mental restrictions. What an adventure this would be.

We then sat and waited for the shrooms to kick in. It usually takes about forty-five minutes to an hour for the average person. Time was passing quickly as we sat and played madden… then all of a sudden we all started to laugh, and the atmosphere began getting a little lighter. Cody then spoke up and said, “Dude, I just blinked my eyes, opened them back up….and all I can say is, woaaaaaaaaah!”

“I feel you man!” I exclaimed in a giggly voice. It seems as though they had hit us in full force now, but to confirm we both turned to Paul. He was sitting there staring at the palm of his hand with a big smile on his face. So without any words, we knew the trip had officially begun.

Originally we had planned to stay in the house, and look at everything we see every day in a different way. But quickly I noticed how nice it was outside. The sun was shining bright and the temperature was comfortably in the sixties, a beautiful fall day. So I mentioned to the guys that we should go outside, and maybe even to Schenley Park.

They all agreed, and so we stepped outside to begin our trek to Schenley Park. At first I had completely forgotten the fact that it was still the middle of a school day, and there were hundreds of college students walking by us everywhere we went. Due to the fact we were tripping our faces off, we couldn’t help but scowl at everyone that merely glanced at us. Not only our facial expressions and emotions gave us away, but also our simple motor functions. When you trip your body slows down in order to allow your brain to use more power, and therefore you walk slower and sometimes even in a weird way. After taking all the shortcuts available and avoiding most of the heavy people traffic, we finally made it out to Phipps (A glass conservatory between the Pitt campus and Schenley Park). It just so happens that across the street from this place was a huge beautiful green hill where they show drive in movies in the spring.

Mushrooms blow all colors and objects way out of proportion. And so, our attention was immediately grasped by this hill. We at first hesitated to step onto it, but then we saw a group of kids studying on a blanket further up the hill. So we decided to go right into the middle of it and lay down. As we traveled up the hill we had not yet taken notice to what was to our backs, and when we sat down it became prominent. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. The entire downtown part of Pittsburgh was visible from here, and the sun was just beginning to set giving the city a sort of ambient glow.

“Wow man, I’ve never seen anything like this…..EVER!” Cody uttered from his excited state.

“This is Pittsburgh at its finest,” I replied.

Cody yells, “Dude do you see that…”

“The sunlight?” “Yea.” said Paul.

Cody and I both noticed that Paul was more of the tough guy type and he either didn’t appreciate the beauty of it or he was just not telling us that he did. But the two of us on the other hand had just moved out to Pittsburgh, and for the first time in the couple months I had been here I realized how lucky I am to have the things I do. The privilege and opportunity that I was given to move out here and go to college was far greater than anything that’s ever happened to me in my life. And to think, up until this moment in time…I was struggling, couldn’t even decide if I wanted to be here anymore, or if college was the place for me. I knew that Cody was going through this same dilemma, and I think that most college students do at least once. But somehow today, we both discovered something…something that changed our worlds forever.

After our long gaze at the city and its prowess, we decided that it was time to move on. The trip had not even reached the half way peak yet, and so we stood up and continued our walk to Schenley. There was a pretty cool looking path to the left of the hill that seemed to head in the right direction. So we decided to take that. The entire time as we traveled along that path with the city to our sides, Cody and I could not stop talking about how we had seen something so amazing that the rest of the day was pretty much pointless, because we will never be able to find anything that beautiful again.

These thoughts were then suddenly shattered as we reached the end of the path. We had run into the Boulevard of the Allies, and looking around saw no signs of the park. While considering turning around and going back I spotted a staircase off in the distance going down into a wooded area. It was directly across the street from us, and so we decided to give it a try.

This was no ordinary staircase. It appeared to be built years and years ago out of stone, and it wrapped around through this beautiful patch of trees that were the perfect autumn color. Because of all these trees you could only see a section of the stairs at a time…and so consequently, you could never tell where you would come out next. And so we traversed the stairs, piece by piece…and we couldn’t help but wonder where it was leading us. Clearly we were not in Pittsburgh anymore.

Deeper and deeper we went into this valley, seeing nothing but trees, when all of a sudden we reached a clearing at the bottom. It was awesome; it felt like a whole new world down there. All that you could see was a little black bridge over a small stream alongside a large cleared out area, and if you looked up…could see nothing but beautiful brown orange and yellow trees.

Being completely blown away by the things I’ve seen on this day I said to Cody, “Dude, there is no way this is real…we were just in Pittsburgh, remember!”

“Were not in Pittsburgh anymore man,” he replied.

For some reason that comment sent my mind spinning and I started to get really excited. At this point in time I was so happy, running around this clearing like an idiot just prancing around celebrating the things I’ve seen this day, when all of a sudden I stumbled across another path! My mind almost couldn’t handle this one; because of the way the sunlight traveled through all those trees…when it shone upon this path, its color turned a golden yellow. It was as beautiful as the yellow brick road from the Wizard of Oz. Only wide enough for a single file line, this path led deeper into this magical forest. And so, we once again consulted each other and decided to give it a try. This time took a little more thought since the sun was setting and the darkness was creeping up.

Travelling down this path, our thoughts were far different from that of the first. The first path we found with the staircase was when we thought we would never find anything as amazing as the city view…and we did. So this time around, the day was just getting better and better, and we had nothing but high hopes for what was about to come. And rightfully so, that path went on and on, but when it finally reached its end and opened up my jaw was forced to the ground. In front of us was an incredibly beautiful man made pond! Who knew that in the middle of the woods, down a small staircase, and then a tiny path… this would exist?

We then spent the remainder of our trip sitting on a bench next to this pond, just talking about the beautiful things in life. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever been as happy as I was on this day. We talked about everything that came to mind, every issue, and every problem. We knew that this day was one to remember. And so, we decided to collect our thoughts and had back home… a good trip it was. This is my recollection.

When you’re on mushrooms, the mind will wander. It traveled to thoughts that I had never even considered before, new revelations of the world we live in. The attention payed to detail was astonishing, and on this day I had seen things, created by people both present and past. I began to think about how people had built this beautiful place years ago, and it seemed that it was forgotten, yet still somehow found. One could say the same about happiness growing old. We create amazing memories, and often they seem forgotten, but through people we meet and the time we spend, this happiness can be found again. Who knew a couple of losers with some drugs could have actually found something new, and this something was a whole new outlook on life. After this trip, I respect nature on a whole other level, and I finally am beginning to cherish all the things around me.