To Serve, To Strive and Not to Yield

In 11th grade I spent a month on an outward bound course, Apparently, I won the scholarship because of my environmental work. I hiked a chunk of the AT with kids from Vermont to Georgia. I can still set up tents in the dark, put up multiple bear lines, bushwhack through the forrest and turn moss into a nice soothing tea.

Outward Bound was interesting. We did rock climbing and repelling one day. I had been climbing with my brother so I was use to hanging off the rock and supporting my weight strictly on my legs. The rock was wet and this one girl Brook scaled the rock face like a billy goat. Most people couldn't sit back on the repelling and it made anxious. Encouragement turned into boredom which turned into frustration.

The hikes were nice inter sparsed with days of elevation climbs and switch backs that made me want to puck. Back and forth on the side of a mountain is not hiking but a death March a exercise in futlity wrapped in a clock of pain. I felt like i was going to rip through my boots.

One day after a rainy hike the group started bickering over who was making dinner and who would put up the bear line. We were on the verge of Lord of the Flies. The group started to turn on loudmouth Jamie he was the thorn in everybody's side. Spears were being fashioned. Mob mentality was defused by a wimpering Jamie who started to walk away blubbering. This was when our instructors stepped in, they let things go haywire to show us how quickly a society can devolve into hate. I hated myself for not defending Jamie.

I feel in love with a girl from Virginia, Maya from Charlottesville. Preppy, green and she had Patagonia.

Outward Bound made me a veggie. I was skinny and had bad facial hair.

This experience helped solidify my crunchy credentials. And it pushed me to UVM, where I thought my education would start me down the road of writing the next clean air act.