The last time I spent much time in Colorado was in 1990, on the last Geology Field Study/American West field trip organized by my friend and colleague Mark Maley. It was the final trip in the summer series, beginning in 1986 when we both taught at Wayne High School in Huber Heights, Ohio.
Over five years and four field trips, about 50 kids took part in the summer extravaganza that had us all sleeping in tents, riding for hours in a stuffed van pulling a trailer, packing lunches, and partaking of student-prepared evening meals served at picnic tables across the American southwest. We hiked down the Grand Canyon and visited alpine lakes in the Rockies. Mark was famous for holding class at 9:00 at night, student notebooks and reports lit by a Coleman lantern. While Mark did the geology and fretted over reservations for months, I planned the menu and offered the kids some humanities, including two trips to Window Rock AZ to visit with Navajo folk. Oh, what a time it was.
We still hear from some of those kids. In fact, the Saturday before Cindy and I set out on this retreat, we hosted a little get-together at our home for one of the very first GFS kids who currently is working in Germany teaching dependents of American airmen and -women. Laurie Scott Mattern did, in fact, go on the first two GFS/AmW trips, filling in a much needed space that second time that helped balance trip expenses.
Which is part of the reason I celebrate GFS/AmW today: While Mark and I don’t know about all the kids who went with us, we do still hear from some. The 1990 crew, in fact -- 19 years later -- now exchange email as a group, mostly laughing about something from that summer or updating everybody on a new trip out west they have taken or are planning with their families.
What I want to say is this: our being in the West made a difference in our lives. The community experience has changed us. Mark and I are now brothers. The kids still laugh about their antics, but underneath it all is a deep appreciation for mountains, the desert, hoo-doos, volcanic cinders, the ancient people who made this amazing region their home, and each other.
The American West is a powerful place. Most of the kids knew. And now, on this quiet retreat in the morning shadow of the Sangre de Cristos overlooking the hard working and beautiful San Luis valley, I am restoring my spirit as I did years ago.
Today’s elder idea: I ask you again: if you have not been enchanted by this adventure -- your life -- what would do for you?
Mary Oliver
from ‘Evidence’ Evidence (2009)
PS: I’m pretty sure some of those GFS/AmW folk are following this blog. How did that trip years ago impact your life? How does it make a difference to you today? I’d appreciate your sharing a comment about that here. Thanks.
I don’t think I can fully articulate how much that summer trip impacted me and what it has meant, but I will try. Starting with the obvious -- my first major in college was Geology, I own too many Enya CDs to count (thank you, Jeff Lockwood), and most years I pick up a new wall calendar of the American West. But the most compelling impact is the constant tug I feel luring me back to the West and that was unexpected. When I decided I wanted to submit an application to go on the trip, I gave it little more thought then it would be a fun and unconventional way to earn school credits. I never anticipated how the West would plant itself in my spirit. Even now, nearly 20 years later, I feel this true sense of longing well up…I want to go back.
ReplyDeleteAnother way the trip impacted me was something I didn’t appreciate until after I got home and in the years following. When I applied to go on the trip, I did so along with some of my buddies from school. For whatever reason, I was the only one in my group who was selected. (And boy, am I still grateful for that.) I confess I was disappointed that I wouldn’t know many, if any, of the other kids who were going; though 2 I would have called distance acquaintances at that time. By the time that summer trip was over, I had a group of friends that felt like extended family. It was so great to be able to meet, talk, share, and experience something so significant with people outside my circle. That GFS/AW trip really taught me a life lesson about the benefits of being open to make new relationships. That’s not an easy lesson to drill into a teenager’s head!
I still hold all of you dear GFS/AW folks in a special place in my heart -- my living memories of a trip that shaped my adolescence and then adulthood.
I can very honestly say that the summer of 1990 was a turning point in my life. Having been chosen as #13 was significant and I felt divine guidance in bringing me into this group. My membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints being one of the big reason's why I was chosen. As such I felt a responsibility to uphold it's name, in a small way. Long road trips led to many silly, some serious conversation. I will never forget the question that changed my life...Steve Regan asked me if Mormon's drink caffeinated soda while I was downing a pepsi. It hit my conscious and turned my mind to reflection about how my actions reflect my own convictions in other's eyes.
ReplyDeleteI will never forget the awe when the gradure of the Canyon first set upon my eyes. A very familiar awe that I had come to know from church. And by the tears shed by many people in the group it was evident that they were feeling that same. Hiking down it and camping at the bottom was just a joy. But what truely seared each heart together as a group began as we supported each other in the arduous hike back up that truely made us like family. My only regret was not sticking with my new "family" till the end where when the sight of the trail head gave me a second wind. I abandoned them and finished alone, yet to the cheers of those who had already suceeded.
I came to understand more about who I am and what are my weaknesses and talents. And the beginning of my healing. It hurt the first time I heard Alex call me by my nickname I was given during that trip, With It. I had never heard someone describe me in that way before. Yet I knew it was partly true, and I began seeing myself as other's saw me. Despite it all, he was truely my friend. What he didn't know was I had had a terrifying experience years ago that had left lasting scars and insecurity. His continued friendship even though he saw my weakness gave me confidence.
Thirteen strangers embarked on a tour of discovery full of knowlege, mischief and humor, and hard work but, returned thirteen life long friends, more accepting and mature than when they began.