Fall 2010 Semester-Journal reflections from the Emigrant Wilderness 9/20-9/30

It’s inspiring and feels somewhat like an accomplishment to stare up at the canyon walls thinking how much more we could push ourselves. Admiring details like the trees, rocks over rocks, dirt, and the natural elements makes me wonder, how can so many things grow on such a steep place. How did the canyons get so big? It makes me think how much bigger we could grow as humans, how far can we push each other to reach a certain expectation to feel accomplished. Maybe, by completing our goals we can be as tall as the canyons, and keep growing positively all around us. The same as how trees and other things grow upon the canyons.

-By Cristian Huezo

 

 

 

If I could call someone, I would call my mom because I love her so much. Out of my whole family I feel like she loves me and cares for me the most. I would tell her I’m having a nice time here and want to do this again. I get to see places that I’ve never seen before, I’ve been on top of a peak, watched the sun go down, and swam in beautiful lakes. I would tell her that I’m losing weight everyday and getting free food. I would tell her that my first day was very difficult because my backpack weighed about 60 pounds. I’d tell her that my Instructors were very nice and helpful and that I appreciate them because without them I’d be dead. I couldn’t have done this without them. I’d tell her I’m proud of myself for making it to the end. I lost a lot of weight, have more stamina and have a bad tan, but its all good. In the future I’d love to do something like this again.

-By Anthony Banclos

 

 

 

Two challenges I faced today were cooking foods that take time and hiking up some rocks and hills. I overcame these challenges by thinking the food I make I will have to eat and I do not want people to think I am a bad cook.  If you are going to do something, why not do it well? I overcame the hiking by thinking it was basketball practice or something.  I kept doing it as if the hiking up hills and rocks would give me stronger legs and better hops. Also, carrying the backpack would make me stronger and not stopping would increase my stamina. Something that pleasantly surprised me was how open people were at the evening circle. Also, before going to sleep four of us stayed by the fire for a while and talked. At that time I felt pretty chill and cool to know about other peoples love life. Before I heard that I thought an eleven month relationship was kind of long but when I heard about these two year and four year relationships I thought of it differently especially after hearing some of the difficult things that happened to them. Something positive I have done is that when someone was on the rock looking at something like they were lonely I checked up on them. I asked them if they were okay and what they were thinking of.

-By Rainer Pascual

 

 

 

I’m sitting on the side of a boulder. The part I’m sitting on is shaped like a seat. There are some weeds to my right. On the ground there are millions of grey and white pebbles of different shades. Trees separated by a few feet. Some big some small .Two trees to my left are grey and have no leaves. There is a tree in front of me that has leaves at the bottom but not the top. When I look up to the right there is a giant mountain with trees in the cracks. I can see black lines running down the mountain. “You feel me blood?”

-By Roger Lopez

 

 

 

We need to improve our communication and be less lazy. If someone is talking we need to respect him or her and not make fun of that person because that is being disrespectful. Another thing that we have to improve is our bad attitude because the backpacking is already difficult so our attitude makes a difference. Communication is really important for us because we have a lot of arguments and we need to work it out. Communication is the best way for our community to improve because that’s the way to reach your goals in life. We have to grow up be less lazy because we have to do our job seriously. We need to do the activities without laziness because laziness is not good for us and we, as youth, are supposed to be sharp and active.

-By Lemuel Aquino

 

I mostly see skinny trees with small needles.  Some of them look green while others look brown. I see the sun, yellow and bright. Just like the sun brightens our day my friend Araceli brightens my day every day. I also witnessed the blue sky with no clouds. I noticed rocks of different shapes and sizes just like our group. We are different in every way but like a rock it’s hard to break us down. A recent experience was when we had to hike from Camp Lake to Piute Lake. It was our hardest hike yet because it was mostly uphill and we had big heavy backpacks. But despite all of this we made it and we were all happy inhaling the fresh air we cannot inhale in the city.

-By Daniel Guardado

 

 

My greatest challenge of the day was to be a fast hiker. My plans are to improve my pace for tomorrow. This will help my classmates more. Despite this difficulty I was positive today and I was surprised to see everybody with a positive attitude. They never gave up,they always tried to keep going. I also liked that with my classmates I can share something and they understand me. I realize that I’ve become stronger than what I thought I was. I’ve experienced many things,good and bad, so I think is a great experience for me…

-By Catherine Mendoza

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