The Journey

For graduating seniors at my high school, you had two options. You either had to choose an organization or facility to devote three weeks of community service to, or you had to go on a grueling excursion in the mountains for the same amount of time. It was a mandatory exercise for us if we wanted to graduate. After thinking about it for a while, I decided I would challenge myself and go on the trip. We went to an informational meeting. They told us we would be going through rigorous terrain and that it was not for the weak. We would be covering a span of 100 miles in three weeks, which didn’t sound horrendous until we actually got there. I figured it would be a good learning experience.  We departed on a Sunday morning and the journey had begun. Over the course of the next three weeks, we had many struggles and victories. The Sierra Nevadas are full of treacherous terrain with much uphill so it was physically grueling and tiring. Every day we would appoint a pacer, a leader, and a compass man. The day I was leader was our hardest day. We had just reloaded on food for the second half of the trip and everyone was complaining about their packs being heavy. The day consisted of much uphill terrain, river crossings, breaks, and extreme fatigue. When we reached our destination for the night, everyone started throwing his or her packs on the floor. Some immediately began to rest, some cursed, some ate. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. It was a flat valley that was once covered by an ocean millions of years ago. We found fossils if ancient organisms from long ago. The best part was going to sleep since we weren’t rolling downhill as we were accustomed to on the uneven land. The rest of the trip was just as bad and when we returned to school, we were all smelly, tired, unshaven, and dirty. I remember I was very glad to see my parents and I immediately went to go shower. It took me an hour in the shower to take all the dirt off of my body and to shave. I felt like the journey’s dirt was no longer on my body but the effects of it were everywhere. I felt more mature and I knew I was a stronger individual because of it. I still look back on my trip and the things I learned.