It took moving 5,397 miles away from my hometown for me to discover nature. It's not that there isn't beautiful outdoors over there, I just wasn't interested. I also used to wake up really late in the morning.

But being in a new place makes you look at things in a different way, everything is new. You try and experiment things you never thought about doing. One of those things, and the one that has changed my life, is waking up early and getting out there.

5 years ago, if I were to watch a sunrise, it'd be heading back home after partying all night or on my way to work from the car. Now, not a single week goes by without me watching at least one in nature, away from the city and all the noise.

Waking up before sunrise, driving somewhere and then hiking, all this is in the dark, can be hard. But at the end, it's worth it. Every. Single. Time.

I've seen sunrises in the Canadian Rockies, in the Eastern Sierras in California, in National Parks like Mt Rainier , Glacier or Yosemite, driven to the Oregon Coast at 3am and almost everywhere around Portland. These are memories I will never forget, and they remind me how beautiful the world is and how little time we've got here to enjoy it. So wake up and get out, now!