During the winter of 2017, Benton Scholar Quanzhi Guo ’18 received a Mini-Grant to complete her version of the great American road trip. By driving from New York to California with her suite mate, Evie Lawson ’18, Q traversed an incredible variety of terrain: from snow-covered fields in the mid west, to the orange and red rock of Antelope Canyon.
I am also reaffirmed by this simple yet profound fact that we are small and insignificant in the universe … The mind-blowing scale of gigantic rock mountains meandering for miles at the Zion National Park left me with an unspeakable finiteness, and all my concerns seemed inconsequential to [their] indifferent nature. By this realization of insignificance, I am not contending for despair or the futility of life. Rather, the larger-than-self context deflates one’s conceits and makes one in awe by the unknown.
You can read more about Q’s travels at the Huffington Post.