We sat looking at each other with blank stares; we couldn't believe what we were hearing. Our best friend, venting his heart out, telling us how the night before he but a plastic bag over his head, grabbed zip ties, and tried to suffocate himself; hoping that he could end it all. With our dinner losing its taste we sat there trying to reason with him. The same clichés that I think people crying out would hear, "you have so much to live for", "you're lucky to have friends that care about you", but none of it seemed to work. We told him to get help but he refused saying "Life is pointless anyway, why can't a person die if he wants to?" We looked at each other, with our hearts beating in our chests, life pulsing in our veins, wanting to give him the same feeling purpose.

It all started as a joke, I don't know who said it first but in order to lighten up the mood one of us said, "You know if you're going to kill yourself you might as well do something crazy." "Why don't you go to Colombia and burn down the drug fields, I mean the drug cartel will kill you anyways, so at least you can do something good for mankind." Our friend smiled a bit, but shook his head "That's not realistic." We looked at each other, and the guy across from me said "Well I mean you should stop by the dean's office and fill up a giant water balloon and throw it at him, you would be the hero of the school." He laughed again, but again he said, "That's not realistic". Then I said, "Why isn't it? If you aren't afraid of death the world is open for you to do anything you want." I looked at my friends and I looked at him, his eyes looking down at his food. For the first time, it all became real.

We are the richest country in the world, but we sit alone at night wanting something more. We are lonely with our riches, following the American Dream. Go to school, get a job, get married, have kids, and repeat. The illusion that our lives have limits causes our massive dependency on drugs, on materialism, and on temporary lusts. We are a society with nothing new to give. We weren't meant to live a life of routine. This trek, this adventure to Alaska is to prove that humans don't have limits. You can do anything you set your mind to. Who says you need to go to college to be happy, who made it the law that you need to be rich. Our friend told us that he had nothing to live for, so we gave him something to live for. Sometimes that means grabbing a bike and going to Alaska. So keep us in your prayers, and be ALIVE.