The Field Trip of a Lifetime

As a University student I experienced, as many others did, an overwhelming amount of stress and anxiety. Post secondary education focuses a lot on the future. Your future as a graduate student, your future career, the future of your field, future research etc. It is so easy to be caught up in running after the next thing. "I just need to make it to first exams and then I can breathe." Or "As soon as I finish this research paper I'll feel better." When in reality, as soon as one thing is done there's something else to come that seems just as urgent. It always felt like a race through it all. First one to the finish line still alive wins... but you also had to pack good grades, extra curriculars and some volunteer work in there too.

Then, while choosing my fourth year classes, I stumbled upon Outdoor Recreation. I had never heard of it but I was full of regret about never taking leadership classes in high school and this didn't seem too far off. I'm decent in the athleticism and coordination department and at this point, something to get me out of the classroom while still offering a full credit seemed great. Turns out this class was legendary in the Human Kinetics Faculty at UWindsor. The more I talked about it and asked around, the more fantastic stories and positive comments I heard.

The part that surprised me most was that this class was essentially a camping trip to Algonquin Park, about 7 hours north of my hometown of Windsor, Ontario. Okay, awesome! I've been camping countless times before, this will be a nice break.

It started with a couple "classes" in the form of meetings to go over what this trip was all about. We had a few readings to complete before the trip, were given a couple small reflective assignments and told what to pack. We were divided into camp groups and informed about how this was a chance to connect more with our peers as well as ourselves. Turns out this was an understatement. A HUGE one.

Spending 10 days in the woods with minimal equipment, zero technology and only each other or the nature in front of us for entertainment was an experience I will never forget. We didn't even know what time it was for 10 days straight. We paddled or hiked as slow as the slowest member and ate when we were hungry. We woke up to our professor yelling good morning and fell asleep under the stars whenever we were tired.

I learned to focus my attention and energy inward rather than outward and I can honestly say that it was one of the biggest and most important life lessons to date. I now make sure I take the time to relax, slow down, pat attention to what I need and where I'm going. It has helped tremendously with my anxiety and stress.

Then there were my friends... Yeah sure I'd gone to school with these 46 other students for the most of the last 3 years, yeah sure I was friends with some, yeah sure I'd done a few group projects with others, but being in the park together for 10 days really forced us to get to know each other in a different way. The nightly campfire was confidential honesty hour and it really allowed everyone to share however much or little as they needed.

We played made up games like kids, we choreographed dances to songs we had to sing and shouted our team chants across the lakes as we paddled. We took turns hanging our food in a tree, carrying the canoes, prepping meals and setting up camp. We watched each other trip on tree roots, smack heads on branches, tip over canoes, grow nasty paddling blisters and burn what would have been a perfectly good meal. The negatives weren't referred to as negative but as silver moments that weren't quite gold status, and for some reason they were so easily laughed off and fixed up.

By the time we arrived back home, we all had 46 new best friends that we knew well and could be honest with. We started our last year of the undergrad program together and took over the school events or local bars as one giant mob. This trip was something I will hold onto forever and I'm grateful for everyone that was a part of it.