A Saturday We Actually Did Something For months, our department kept saying we should get out and do something together. Last weekend, we finally stopped talking and went—a hike up Xianlingqi Mountain in Xiamen. No spreadsheets. No status updates. Just a group of us seeing what happens when you leave the office behind. People rolled up Saturday morning looking like they had slept in for once. One person brought a bag of bagels. Another had a thermos full of hot tea. Someone showed up in sneakers that were definitely not made for hiking, which became a running joke for the rest of the day. First Steps The trail started through a stretch of woods where the trees grew close together. The ground was soft, leaves crunching underfoot, and the air smelled like damp earth and pine. Some people took off fast, others hung back, and every few minutes someone would stop to check out something—a fallen tree covered in moss, a bird that sat still long enough to get a look, a break in the trees that showed the valley below. We talked about random stuff. What shows people were watching. Where to get good tacos. Nothing important, but it felt good. The Hard Part Nobody Mentioned About an hour in, the trail stopped being a walk and turned into a climb. The slope got steeper and the path got narrower, with rocks sticking out in places you didn't expect. One person stepped on a loose stone and nearly went down—the guy behind her caught her elbow before she even knew what happened. Another colleague, the quiet one who usually keeps to himself, started calling out where the footing was bad. "Watch that spot." "Left side is better." Nobody planned it. People just started looking out because that's what you do when the path gets rough. Up at the Top We made it to the summit after a couple hours of pushing through the steep parts. The view up there made everyone go quiet for a second—hills stacked on hills, the city looking tiny in the distance, clouds moving slow across a huge sky. People found rocks to sit on. One person lay down flat on a big boulder and closed their eyes. Another pulled out a bag of grapes and started handing them out. Someone took a picture of the group, and when we looked at it later, everyone was smiling the way you do when you're tired and happy at the same time. Hanging Out on a Mountain We stayed at the top way longer than we meant to. Snacks came out of every bag—pretzels, apple slices, some kind of cheese crackers that got passed around until they were gone. People took off their shoes, leaned back against rocks, and let conversations wander. Someone told a story about getting lost on a hike in college. Another person talked about their dog's weird habits. A debate started about whether you can call it a hike if there's a parking lot at the trailhead. Nobody checked their phone. Nobody cared what time it was. The Walk Back Down Coming down was easier but slower. People fell into pairs that hadn't existed on the way up. The person who had stru...









