00:0419 years old first time traveling alone and right now I'm standing on a wall
00:10older than almost anything I've ever touched snaking over mountains as far as
00:16I can see with my phone zipped at the bottom of my bag I'm Monica I'm from
00:22India and two weeks ago I told my family I was going to China alone their faces
00:30priceless I came to climb the Great Wall and to find out what happens when you
00:35stop watching the world through a screen and actually walk into it stay until the
00:41end because on my last morning a stranger on the wall said one word to me
00:46that I haven't stopped saying since let me back up at home my entire life lived
00:53inside a six-inch rectangle reels while I brushed my teeth reels in the auto reels
01:02in bed until my eyes burned my screen time report said seven hours a day seven and I
01:12realized something strange I had watched the whole world mountains cities temples
01:19and I had never actually been anywhere so I saved my internship money and one
01:26night I told my parents silence alone to China better why my dad asked forty
01:36questions I answered every one the itinerary the hostel the emergency contacts the
01:46works then I said the truest thing I had I don't want to watch the world anymore I want to
01:57walk in it mom hugged me so
02:01tight then slipped a packet of homemade snacks into my bag my promise one check-in
02:09call a day the rest of the time the phone stays away Beijing is huge everything's
02:17bigger faster shinier than I imagined and I can't read a single sign my jet lag
02:24wakes me at five in the morning so I wander outside and find a park and it's
02:30alive at dawn grandmother's and grandfather's moving through Tai Chi like
02:35water a group dancing to music men slapping down cards a man painting giant
02:43characters on the pavement with just water and a brush and they vanish as they
02:48dry I'm standing there awkward and lost when an auntie grabs my hand and pulls me
02:54into her dance circle I have no idea what I'm doing she laughs I laugh everyone
03:00claps I say nay how and she says in cheerful English good good and just like
03:09that I'm not a tourist I'm part of the morning nobody here is looking at a phone
03:16they're looking at each other and I'm thinking where have these people been all
03:22my life that afternoon I get lost in the old alleys the hutongs gray brick bicycles
03:30tiny courtyards where families have lived for generations I wander into a little
03:36dumpling shop and the owner mrs. Zhao looks at me and says something my
03:43translation app takes a full minute to figure it out
03:46have you eaten have you eaten that's how people here say hello not how are you
03:56have you eaten care served first she sits me down and shows me how to fold a
04:03dumpling mine look like sad little pillows she laughs so hard she has to wipe her
04:10eyes then eats every ugly one I make just to be kind later the hostel owner
04:18introduces me to Lin a young hiking guide who grew up near the wall tomorrow I'll
04:25show you the wall the real way on foot I barely sleep
04:41next morning we leave the city behind the mountains blaze red and gold it's the
04:47middle of autumn and then around a bend I see it the great wall rolling along a
04:57ridge like a stone dragon watchtowers rising from the trees my heart does a
05:04backflip I walk up and I put my hand on the brick it's cold rough ancient Lin tells
05:14me it's not one wall it's many walls built over centuries by many dynasties and the
05:21stretches most visitors walk today mostly come from the Ming era soldiers lived in
05:27these towers workers carried every single brick up this mountain on their backs
06:00and now we climb
06:06the steps are steep uneven worn smooth by centuries of feet within ten minutes my
06:15legs are burning and my breath is loud it's cold but I'm sweating I keep my eyes
06:22on the stone in front of me one step then another
06:28I have no idea what it means Lin explains it's literally add oil like adding fuel to
06:36an engine it means keep going you can do it and it's everywhere a couple in their
06:4360s passes me and the husband says yeah with a smile a woman offers me a handful of roasted chestnuts
06:52from
06:52her bag strangers cheering a stranger on at the top of the section I step into a
07:00watchtower and the view hits me ridge after ridge after ridge the wall winding through all of it I've seen
07:10this in a thousand photos but the photos didn't have the wind or the smell of wood smoke or the
07:19sound of my
07:30that evening we stay in a village near the wall in a farmhouse where
07:36persimmons hang drying in orange strings on the walls the family cooks dinner steaming
07:42steaming plates fresh vegetables hot soup and so much food that I lose
07:50count Lin's grandfather sits beside me and through Lin's translation he tells me
07:59that his father used to walk the wall every morning to look after it not for
08:05money because it was home
08:22the wall protects us now we protect the wall nobody is on their phone after dinner we just
08:33sit and talk laughing at my terrible attempts at Mandarin until it's late later I step outside and
08:43the sky is insane stars from horizon to horizon I think about my screen time report seven hours a day
08:54and tonight I haven't thought about my phone once not because I'm forcing myself because I'm too busy being alive
09:06last morning 5 a.m. Lin and I climb in the dark headlamps bobbing frost on the stone my fingers
09:18are numb
09:19my legs hate me part of me wants to turn around and then near the top an old man sitting
09:28by a watchtower
09:29with a thermos
09:30looks up at me smiles and says the one word I've heard all week
09:36and something in me cracks open I climb the last steps and the sun rises
09:46golden light pours over mountain after mountain and the wall lights up
09:52like a ribbon of fire along the ridge I can't speak I'm crying and laughing at the same time
10:01I realize what that word has been telling me all along
10:06keep going not just on the wall in life
10:12I've spent years scrolling consuming watching other people live
10:18but happiness isn't something you watch
10:21it's something you climb toward one step at a time with people cheering next to you
10:27on the last night I turn my phone back on a flood of notifications
10:33I scroll past them all and do something I haven't done in years
10:37I call my mom not a text a real call
10:42and when she picks up and says beta are you okay
10:47my voice shakes and I say mom I'm better than okay
10:51I climbed the great wall
10:54she cries
10:56I cry
10:57we both laugh
11:00I'm not saying throw your phone away
11:02I'm saying this
11:04this week try an hour less
11:07call someone instead of texting
11:10say hello to a stranger
11:13walk somewhere without earphones
11:16climb something
11:17even if it's a small hill
11:20because the world isn't something to watch
11:23it's something to walk into
11:25so tell me in the comments which wonder should I walk next
11:29and if this story gave you a little push subscribe
11:33because the next adventure is already loading
11:36bye y'all everyone
11:38one.
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