Raquette Lake

Hi Everyone,
       When I found out at the end of the summer that I was required to go on a 3 day camping trip with my college science class, my first reaction was, "I did not sign up for a trip, I cannot believe that I will have to go camping for this course." Then my science teacher told us that there are black bears there too. So now I thought, "First I am being requried to go on a 3 day camping trip (not a favorite of mine), and now I could even get eaten by a black bear!" My anxiety level shot through the roof. This should have been an red flag of what was to come next...my trip did not start off on the right foot. I was up the entire night before the trip because I was finishing a children's story about a rock for science class. The book took me 30 hours to complete becasue I had to research and relearn the rock cycle. High school science was decades ago, amost four decades to be exact. Then came the bus trip. We were sandwich into a school bus like a bunch of sardines. There was luggage and sleeping bags everwhere. The enitre back wall of the bus was baracaded. My luggage had to be loaded into the teachers van, as there was no room for it on the bus. I figured I was on a roll now headed down a path of no return, without a cell phone to call home for help. This was it, I would never see my family again...but to my surprise the trip was supercaliafragilisticexpialidocious!
       I am so glad I went. I was able to get to know all my classmates, teachers and students from another section. We worked in many different groups, learning how to build community and trust in our futrue classrooms, while all along building community and trust among ourselves. I went on my first canoe trip and helped to rescue some classmates whose canoe was hung up on rocks, conversed with students and teachers from Thialand, taught a few dance steps to other classmates and one of my teachers, learned the hard way not to touch a stinging nettle plant, hugged a tree, learned how to use a GPS, slept in bunk beds, hosed down dishes, carefully removed several daddy longleg spiders by hand from an entrance for a classmate who was petrified of spiders, went on hikes, performed in a skit about the history of the camp, ate smores at a campfire, and most importantly was able to relax and be myself in front of people I did not know. Being a non-traditional student, this meant the most to me. I felt accepted and warmly welcomed into the group. This experience will make this semester, as well as those to come much more enjoyable and less stressful. I want to build this kind of community in my future classes, when I become an elementary school teacher. This experience has added many more tools to my toolbox. Oh, and those black bears, they never showed up.