Going out to a place where
man is in his most raw form I think put everybody on the same playing field but
also allow people to feel free to be themselves.
In high school i kinda felt alone.
I wanted want to try to make friends before all the freshmen come to orientation and
just like really chaotic. I think that even before we went out in the gym that
day we just kinda realized like these are people gonna be with for like 4 or 5 days.
The Freshman Wilderness Experience is a trip designed to get incoming freshmen out into montana wilderness prior to their
first semester at the University of Montana in Missoula. Basically we lead small groups of students
all over the state doing backpacking trips primarily and then we did do a
canoe trip this year on the Missouri River.
I think for a group to continue to grow you need to have continuous effort and they need to go through a bit of struggle.
We got no money, we got no service, no internet.
I got really bad blisters the first day. These boots plus these socks equals bad.
Half of us are boy scouts. We got to pitch tents. I've never been a Boy Scout in my life. Three strange people that just met each other.
There's just something about sleeping like two inches away from somebody.
Like wow I feel like I know these people better.
Its not all over like social media stuff. We are not on our phones texting people.
We're just with each other cold. Maybe I was cold. Maybe they weren't.
It's things like that that show how simple life really is when you break it down..... and how beautiful life is.
I'm seeing stuff I have never seen before. It's absolutely gorgeous. The whole group is really nice.
So it's really important I think like enjoy cooking or like really learning a new skill or two,
and also enjoy your meal.
I've actually never cooked like stuff like this at all so I feel like you know is actually currently preparing me for living on my own.
It came down to the point where they
realized we're just all bunch of humans and we're just trying to survive and
fulfill our basic needs, and maybe get a little more. So once they realized that they really came together.
We sat around we will all have an opportunity to
tell a story. That was last night. The night before that we had a talent show.
singing and music
These were just moments where we go to laugh at each other and laugh at ourselves.
Most students this is their first experience in montana wilderness and so as
readers want to make sure that we're establishing a really good first
interaction with the wilderness and make sure that they know how to take care of it
and how to have this symbiotic relationship with the wilderness.
We climbed this big rock formation.
I felt like we were above everything else and we could just see everything.
We just climbed to the top all with our arms raised like we did it.
Someone take a picture now.
Feeling a little more wild is always a good thing.
Now that I'm actually here
high school is completely behind me. Nothing but moving forward.
I was still able to make it through the whole trip even though it hurt.
It was still worth all the beauty I got to see and I feel that is how college is going to be.
You know it will hurt sometimes but it'll be worth it all.
I was walking through the reservoir at one point and talking to Reed about how different life is now in this
last week than it has been in high school in Flordia.
And how I felt welcome. He said, well John, your home now.