Feeling Alive at Deadman’s Catwalk
Sometimes I experience moments where my heart feels so full it might just stop beating. Reaching the viewpoint of Deadman’s Catwalk in Oahu, HI, was one of those moments.
That early July morning in 2021, my friend Kait picked up Juliette, Layne and I from the studio apartment we were splitting that month in Waikiki. The ear piercing tone of my phone’s alarm began blaring at 3:30 a.m. and immediately I thought, “This fucking hike better be worth it.”
Kait, who always is in the best of moods, pulled up in her Nissan, blasting Harry Styles in hopes of getting us into a more light-hearted mood. It didn’t work.
After sneaking up to the entrance of the illegal hike and walking the first bit, I slowly began to feel myself come a little more alive. The hike itself was only about two and a half miles roundtrip, a distance which pales in comparison to the several six mile hikes we spent the past couple of weeks doing. Within the first 20 minutes of the hike, we needed to climb over a 20 foot fence to continue. A daunting task for 4 in the morning, but one we easily overcame.
Once we made it past the fence, it felt like we could do anything. I began playing my “Chill morning playlist,” which includes a mix of The Lumineers and Taylor Swift, on my Beats Pill speaker and suddenly everyone’s mood turned around.
Admittedly, the last half mile wasn’t long but felt endless. The steepness definitely wasn’t something I was ready for so early in the morning. However, once we reached the lookout I knew all of that treachery was worth it.
The four of us sat down on the turf lookout just as the sun began to rise. On my speaker “Forever” by Labrinth began to play and I instantly felt tears swell up in my eyes. In that moment I saw everything: the crystal clear water, the continuous stretch of mountains on either side of me, the never-ending shades of purple followed by yellow and orange that filled the morning sky.
Most important, it felt like the first time that summer that I could truly take a moment to appreciate not just the scenery but the people around me.
I came to Hawaii in May with Layne, a friend from college but not necessarily someone I was very close with. I presented the idea of going to Hawaii for a couple weeks to her one night at a bar in Nashville and next thing we knew we booked our tickets.
I didn’t know then that Layne and I would grow to be inseparable. That us choosing to stay in the cheapest hostel on the island would lead to meeting Juliette, who, after only a week of knowing her, decided to stay the whole summer with us and become our roommate. Or that Kait, a co-worker I met after getting a job at a smoothie shop near the hostel, would end up going on a week-long road trip up the coast of California with us later that summer.
Sitting there watching the sunrise, all I could feel was grateful. I’m not sure if I believe in fate, but it truly felt as if it could only have been fate that brought us all together.
There aren’t many moments in life where my heart feels so full, where life feels quiet and everything feels like it will be okay; however, sitting at the peak of Deadman’s Catwalk, listening to Labrinth repeat the line “I’ll live forever,” with three of my new best friends was exactly that.
