To: OUTSIDE magazine

If this Chris McCandless guy was still alive, I would drive up to Washington D.C. and meet him. I admire his courage and passion to be able to leave everything he earned up to then and live in the wild. I admit that it was stupid of him to not bring a map or compass and rely solely on the limited knowledge he had. This could also be proof that he was an egotistical, cocky, self-centered person who thought so highly of himself that he didn't need help from anyone or anything. In spite of all these comments against McCandless, I believe that he should be a celebrated character for showing people the power that nature holds. Many people have made the comment that McCandless was suicidal, so he went into the wild with nothing other than a few survival items. I object. I want to ask those who believe that statement, would you spend close to a year of your life in the wild and then starve yourself to death just so you can commit suicide? McCandless was not suicidal, but his passion for self-reliance and his influence of Tolstoy's experience was so great that he believed the only way to reach this total self-reliance was to leave all modern equipment behind and step forward into a new life with nothing but the wilderness around him. There is evidence in McCandless's journey that shows he did not want to die. When he was close to death in the bus, he wrote a note stating his condition and asking for help. His fatal experience was merely fate messing around and bad luck; had he seen the aluminum tub that would get him across the Teklanika River, he wouldn't be dead now. I think those who think that Chris McCandless was arrogant, stupid, and deserved to die because of his ignorance lacks compassion and are narrow minded; those who are against the story of McCandless are the ones who haven't had a great passion for something he believed in. The thing that those people don't understand is that when you have a passion for something, your life begins to revolve around it and you breathe it 24/7. You want to be surrounded by it every second of your life no matter what happens, and Chris McCandless did exactly that.