(That's me)
Lying in my bed the night before I would set out on an exploration that would easily qualify as the best field trip I have taken with a class at Guilford College during my 5 years, I had absolutely no anxiety or fear at all. I have only been backpacking once before for a field trip my senior year of high school and it put me in my element. The only thing that was bad about that trip was that I starved for the last two days because we didn’t pack enough food. That sucked, so I brought some extra food this time around. Two extreme aspects of my personality are my infatuation with nature and my laid back attitude about everything. This makes me built for backpacking, and after this trip, I plan on going a lot more.
(I was too lazy to take a pic of my bracelet to show you so I just posted a picture of it when I was in Uganda.)
After I had gotten everything packed up, I made sure to grab one more thing: my perseverance bracelet. As Lance Armstrong has the “Livestrong” bracelets, my little brother has the perseverance bracelet. Going on a camping trip towards the end of winter with a 60 pound backpack on, I thought it would be good to have that as a reminder, a way to keep my own suffering that I may experience in context with much worse suffering that happens daily.
The weekend has passed…
After camping in the woods with my fellow IDSers for 3 days, I have come to reflect on many things about myself, the group, and the world in general.
About the world we live in...
As I have explored through the world of meditation, one thing that mindfulness teaches is the ability to observe how our own minds function. In general, when I fully immerse myself into the woods, I am a much more happy person. Reflecting on the “civilized world” I left behind, there are so many things in it that promote suffering in the form of frustration, stress, and anger. For instance, in our Americanized world of time constraints, it is so easy to let driving a car become a very negative activity. Think about it, when you drive your car, you often get mad at the car going too slow in front of you, of the asshole who just cut you off, of the fucking dipshit that will not stop tailgating you even though you are already going 9 over the speed limit. After not driving for 6 months when I ventured to Mexico and Uganda, I felt much more pleasant as well. Another negative part of the “civilized world” that I was able to reflect upon is the fact that you pass so many people at any given day and the majority of your interactions with them (if you even interact with them in the first place) are completely artificial. How many people do you pass by merely saying “hey Joe, how you doin’ today dude? Good yeah me too, see ya.” What really gets me though is when I have to buy anything. Because its right across the street, I get most of what I need at Harris Teeter. When you walk in, you pass many other shoppers without even recognizing their existence and then you check out by having a completely artificial interaction with the cashier. “Hey there did you find everything you need? Do you have your Vic card? You saved X amount of dollars today have a good one!” Who gives a shit. Another poor aspect of the “civilized world” is being inside enclosed by an artificial enclosure, blinded by fluorescent lights, shielded by blank walls and a ceiling, and breathing filtered air. This last weekend I experienced just the opposite. Wanna see it? Check it out:
Doesn’t that look so much better than driving around screaming at the guy in front of you going 10 miles per hour below the speed limit? I have always loved being outside but being completely immersed this trip put me in a completely different mindset/mood and I loved myself a lot better. During the trip, I thought I was really good at taking orders from people as well as volunteering to do work and taking my own initiative to do tasks. I think I am really efficient at working within a group because I don’t have any strong preferences for the way things should be and I am very laid back and easy going. Like my Mexican brothers, I am very responsive to projects that are tackled in solidarity.
As a group, we flourished. There was never any visible tension between any individuals within the group and no single person seemed to be excluded. When we needed water, a group would go get water. (that was my favorite job)
When we needed fire, we would gather wood and light it up. When everyone was hungry people would take charge and fire up the stoves. The dynamics were impeccable and it was a really cool thing to be a part of because everyone really carried their weight and no single person did a lot more than any other. In less than 3 days of backpacking, I can easily say that I have grown much closer to the friends I already had in the group and developed some really neat relationships with other kids that I didn't know as well.
Ironically enough, the weakest links were the additional teachers. While I can see how it would be hard for them to come into a class mid way through the semester on a trip like this, they were certainly the outsiders. Furthermore, I hate to say it, but I was bored to tears when they spoke of their life stories on Friday night around the camp fire. I wish we had had more time to converse as a whole instead of listening to these two teachers. I had Mr. D as a first semester freshman taking his intro to political systems class. While I was a terrible student as a freshman and really struggled in that class, even when I showed signs of reaching out to him and asking for help, he left me floundering in that class in favor of other upper class men who really flourished. While my percentage in that class merited me a gruesome C-, he slapped me with the D+ instead. Suffice it to say, I've always had a huge grudge against Mr. D ever since and he showed me no redeeming features during his life story or his participation during our trip. While I never found an appropriate time to talk to him about it, I still would like to talk to him some day and explain to him that one way he could improve as a teacher is by recognizing when some of his students are really struggling and when they show the smallest signs of asking for help to really follow through and either advise them to drop the class or offer some other sort of remedy. If I had dropped that class I would probably have around a 3.35 GPA instead of the 3.25 I have now.
As a group, we flourished. There was never any visible tension between any individuals within the group and no single person seemed to be excluded. When we needed water, a group would go get water. (that was my favorite job)
When we needed fire, we would gather wood and light it up. When everyone was hungry people would take charge and fire up the stoves. The dynamics were impeccable and it was a really cool thing to be a part of because everyone really carried their weight and no single person did a lot more than any other. In less than 3 days of backpacking, I can easily say that I have grown much closer to the friends I already had in the group and developed some really neat relationships with other kids that I didn't know as well.
There were two parts of the trip where I needed to look at my blue perseverance bracelet. The first came on Friday night. At just under 30 degrees Fahrenheit with a sleeping bag that did not cover me all the way, I was freezing my butt off. It was incredibly difficult for me to fall asleep and keep asleep that night. I probably woke up about 6 or 7 times throughout the night and had two pretty freaky dreams. As context for the first dream, as I was shivering myself to sleep, I kept thinking about the reading that we had at the beginning of the year about keeping yourself warm and what happens when your body temperature drops. One of the side effects when you began to catch hypothermia is that you begin to feel impaired, almost drunk. Therefore, in the first dream, some of my fellow IDSers, Maia, and I were in a big tent and Maia was testing us on something. When I was unable to answer the question at all because I was too cold, they began to yell at me. I woke up soon after, going pee in the woods. My second dream was a lot like that movie Inception and I was Leonardo Dicaprios character while my girl friend was the character Molly (Leo’s wife). I don’t remember exactly what happened but I remember waking up and really wishing I was cuddled up to Sara in bed instead of on the ground catching hypothermia. Just like all bad things that happen to us, this night soon came to pass, and I was warm the next day.
The second time where I had to persevere was the next day when I joined the group that decided to take a harder route to the next campsite. This route was pretty easy in the beginning, going downhill for the majority of the time, but it made up for it at the end when we hiked straight up for about 2 miles. I soon fell to the back of the pack with Maia and Greg. We had to take some pretty long breaks and I thought we’d never reach the peak. However, I had some incredibly valuable conversations about life and Guilford with my two pals that helped me keep my mind off of the excruciating hike. Here's a picture of Greg and Maia.
Its funny cause Maia yells at Greg to motivate him a lot even though she is a whole foot shorter than him.
Another aspect that I loved while on this trip was the way that I bonded with some of the guys on the trip. My newfound best friend Greg and I took some pretty hilarious pictures together that constantly lightened our moods as well as the moods of the group. With his creative, spastic, goofy, sarcastic, sense of humor and my ability to take sick nasty pics, we were a pretty great combo. Here are some of are best pics from the trip:
I definitely foresee myself collaborating more with Greg in the future because we play off of one another very well and we both have similar interests in film and photography.
While these pictures are pretty damn hysterical, the funniest picture is shown below of my buddy Dave Krongel being a tented turtle.
For my conclusion to this reflection, I would like to talk about my wonderful teacher, Maia, who made this whole trip possible and who has taught me a great deal not just about photography but about myself and the best ways to live life. As a teacher, Maia is excellent at motivating her students. Though she only posts up at about 5' 3" she is one fiery lady and she can really light a fire under your ass. Through my 5 years at Guilford, she has kept that fire stoked under my ass and she has really motivated me to excel at my work as a photographer. However, as I end my career as a college student, I have noticed a drastic change in our relationship. This has been a gradual change over the semester but it has been much more noticeable after taking a long walk with her a week ago and going on this trip together. It is not so much a lazy student/disciplining teacher relationship where she feels the need to motivate me through lectures and ass fires. She doesn't need to give so much of the motivation anymore because I have become a motivated person in pursuing the things that I feel are just in this world and that better myself. Instead we are more as equals, learning from each other. Don't get me wrong, it is still a teacher/student relationship but I like to think of it more as a Patawon/Jedi knight, Wesley Crusher/Captain Picard, Grasshopper/Master Po relationship if you get my drift. Basically, I feel really honored to have been her student and I can really feel that she has come to respect me and that really means a lot. While Jack Sinclair took these pictures and not me, I just absolutely love this series because it shows exactly what I am talking about as Maia and I tell stories around the fire last Friday night.
Its funny cause Maia yells at Greg to motivate him a lot even though she is a whole foot shorter than him.
Another aspect that I loved while on this trip was the way that I bonded with some of the guys on the trip. My newfound best friend Greg and I took some pretty hilarious pictures together that constantly lightened our moods as well as the moods of the group. With his creative, spastic, goofy, sarcastic, sense of humor and my ability to take sick nasty pics, we were a pretty great combo. Here are some of are best pics from the trip:
I definitely foresee myself collaborating more with Greg in the future because we play off of one another very well and we both have similar interests in film and photography.
While these pictures are pretty damn hysterical, the funniest picture is shown below of my buddy Dave Krongel being a tented turtle.
One disappointment I had with the trip is we really did not come across much wild life. However, I spotted a gem on the tail end of the trip, a snapping turtle about a foot long swimming in the water. Though it is hard to see, the turtle in this picture is to the top left. (You may have to click on it to make it bigger in order to see the little guy).
For my conclusion to this reflection, I would like to talk about my wonderful teacher, Maia, who made this whole trip possible and who has taught me a great deal not just about photography but about myself and the best ways to live life. As a teacher, Maia is excellent at motivating her students. Though she only posts up at about 5' 3" she is one fiery lady and she can really light a fire under your ass. Through my 5 years at Guilford, she has kept that fire stoked under my ass and she has really motivated me to excel at my work as a photographer. However, as I end my career as a college student, I have noticed a drastic change in our relationship. This has been a gradual change over the semester but it has been much more noticeable after taking a long walk with her a week ago and going on this trip together. It is not so much a lazy student/disciplining teacher relationship where she feels the need to motivate me through lectures and ass fires. She doesn't need to give so much of the motivation anymore because I have become a motivated person in pursuing the things that I feel are just in this world and that better myself. Instead we are more as equals, learning from each other. Don't get me wrong, it is still a teacher/student relationship but I like to think of it more as a Patawon/Jedi knight, Wesley Crusher/Captain Picard, Grasshopper/Master Po relationship if you get my drift. Basically, I feel really honored to have been her student and I can really feel that she has come to respect me and that really means a lot. While Jack Sinclair took these pictures and not me, I just absolutely love this series because it shows exactly what I am talking about as Maia and I tell stories around the fire last Friday night.
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