If you’re familiar with our company, then you’re probably familiar with our tagline, “Where Will You Leave Your Mark?” You may also know that the tagline grew from our conversations about the motto, “Take Nothing, Leave Nothing,” which has also been used by the National Park Service. While I do believe in that mantra, a part of me always felt that it wasn’t really possible. For every time I travel, I feel I leave a small part of myself behind, and of course, I always take a little piece of every trip home with me – in my heart and in my memory. I have felt that I have been marked by my journeys, and I hope in some small way, I have left my mark somehow in the places I’ve visited.
The more we dissected this question posed in our tagline, the more we realized it came with many layers. Though our initial concept was about leaving your footprint in as many places as you could, we quickly came to realize we leave our mark in other ways as well. I know from personal experience that I have been marked – touched, inspired, and even changed – by people I have met. So, the phrase grew to another level. The “Where Will You Leave Your Mark?” question made us take note of the possibility that we could try to leave our mark, not just on dirt, but on human beings, too.
On an even grander scale, this same question made us ponder the essence of our very existence. Long after we leave this world and head off to hike the majestic mountains in Pearly Gates National Park, will we be remembered here on earth? How will we be remembered? Where will we have left our mark? Now, our tagline seemed to take on a more spiritual inquisition.
We use that question now to drive us in many different ways. We pose it, too, as a rhetorical question in the hopes that it gets others to reflect on its multi-dimensional meaning. We have limited time, true, but so much can be done with it.
“Where Will You Leave Your Mark?”
We try to encourage people to get out and hike, of course. We want to try to inspire others to immerse themselves in nature and reap the rewards we know it brings. We also want to cultivate a culture of awareness by getting people to understand that the people we encounter are in some way – small or big – impacted by us. Lastly, we hope our question raises a level of cognizance and gets others to ponder what their overall legacy will be.
So, when contemplating “Where Will You Leave Your Mark?” consider the footprint you leave behind – on dirt, on the human spirit, and on a world that will one day only have a memory of you.
