June 16, 2009

Sorry I haven't written in a while. I've been busy graduating 40 beautiful seniors! We then had a week of staff meetings and are now filling our time with End-of-Year report writing. I did, however, have a few more End-of-Year experience photos to share. Above, you can see the leader of the west trip, Bob, in his strong leadership position. (At least Liz is doing something to keep the canoe moving forward!) Below, Bob's group as they are about to get on the river for 5 days. As Susannah said in her evaluation, "I feel like the West Trip is a lot more about personal growth than anything else. Other trips have encouraged group bonding and service, but this trip was more about learning about myself. The challenges were more personal and being in the canyons offered many opportunities for personal reflection. I thought a lot about transitioning out of high school and into college."

Esther wrote: "Backpacking was amazing, a very solitary experience of just plodding along in your own world. It wasn't too hot and the canyon was beautiful. It was nice to be able to walk and think, to just let your mind wander.

The bottom three shots are of Susan's Civil Rights group. You can see the whole group on a ferry trip in Gee's Bend, home of the famous Gee's Bend quilters. Below, Alison and I are at the Civil Rights Museum in Burmingham, and Molly is at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Atlanta.

More quotes from Bob's kids...

Josh: "My favorite moment was running up the final slope of Dominguez Canyon looking down at the river singing the 'Rocky' theme music."

Ben: "I loved waking up in the night and seeing all the stars and Milky Way. More than that, I liked not having to care what time it was, what day it was. Everything just sort of flowed. We were on our own time in the desert, and that's a great thing."

Erin: "Being out west in such a demanding and open environment asks for a lot of effort from people. At times, it can be easy to let things get you down and learning to cope with that is important. It is extremely meaningful to have the opportunity to escape society for a while and just allow yourself to actually think."

Colin: "When I first signed up for the West Trip, it was for the adventure. Now that it's done, I have much more than that. The ability to work in a group of the same people for two weeks was a great challenge, and we met the challenge. There are many times that the need to put the group ahead of one's self comes up in life, and this trip helped us see that. Also, the geology and astronomy were awesome!"

Who could ask for more. Out of the classroom--into the world.