Sunday, August 28, 2011

Reflections on the Solo Crossing

These trips I’ve been going on these last couple years have been getting only better and better. I have so much love in my heart for this program, its mentors, staff and every participant I’ve met so far. I live life to love everyone and everything and this trip has been just an amazing opportunity to exercise and carry out that quality as well as receiving it. I come home excited to greet the world with the new me and I plan to do it proudly. I feel very blessed to have been able to see the things I’ve seen, feel the things I've felt and sleep in the places I've slept and prayed. And I pray and hope someone else will be as fortunate to embark on the wonderful journey I've just come home from. I look forward to many more trips with journeys and I most definitely recommend these trips to everyone. And send my love to everyone who will or will not be going on this trip.
With love,
Jesse “LJ” Larson

This trip was something that I will remember for many years to come, and hopefully I will never forget the lessons I learned. The people I have met on this trip are some of the nicest, deepest, and generally some of the coolest people I have met, and I hope to stay in touch with them. I cannot convey through words the incredible things I have experienced. Among them are the views I saw, the lessons I learned, the insights I had, and I will never be able to describe how amazing food tastes after a long hike. To the person reading this, whoever you are, I recommend that you go on a Rite of Passage Journey, as it will be worth it and you will learn things about yourself and realize things you may never have imagined.
With the utmost love and sincerity,
Kory “Da Man” Schneider

My rite of passage journey was an experience that will stay with me for the rest of my life. The potency of the bonds I’ve made on this trip with the participants as well as mentors are strong and will be in my heart for many more years to come. All the great fun and laughs around campfires and strenuous times pushing up massive hills have been engraved into my memory, and shall take a long expanse of time from now until they blur and become foggy and hard to remember. Learning about myself and what kind of adult I want to become in my life was a priceless treasure to me that was an honor to have. The wisdom the mentors passed down to me will help me though out my life and in harder times help me find within myself the right answers and decision to make. Out of all the skills I’ve learned one of the ones that comes to mind is the skill of meta, being able to take a step back and look at what I’m doing and where I am in my life without distorting what I see. So over all the trip has permanently changed me In dozens of positive ways and even some that I haven’t discovered yet. Id recommend this journey to any youth who wants to test themselves physically as well as take a glimpse into the future and see what kind of man/woman they are growing into. ~ Cullen Recktenwald

The sky is the limit. That was only one of the many things I learned while I was on my solo crossing. Another thing I was able to learn was how to be more direct when speaking to people and how to use my voice to not only share why I’m angry, sad, hurt, etc. but, also how I feel about it. This journey’s trip has been packed to the brim with laughter, fun, good times, memories, learning experiences, amazing people, a few disagreements, nature, broken stoves, and bear cans. Everything I carried throughout the trip only made me stronger. Not only physically but, also mentally. I learned things that will stay with me my whole life, and things that will also make my life the best life I could ever dream up. And I’ll get through it with everyone around me and with the knowledge that I can do whatever I want, be whoever I want, and no one can ever tell me I can’t. From now on I determine my life and future. Sure, my parents and guardians can tell me not to eat this or go there but, basically it’s all me. That’s my power, and part of what the sky is the limit means to me. I’m never going to stop striving for what I want, in all aspects of my life. On the second night of my solo vigil I watched as the sky turned from a plain baby blue to being speckled with stars twinkling, glimmering, and floating in a darkened night sky. And I told myself that if I wanted I could be that brightest, biggest star in the sky. If I want to write a bestseller I will, and if I want to be an amazing softball player I will do that too. It’s all up to me. ~Ella Lanphear

Journeys’ Rap
I got a double sized pack
So hold the bear can
That might not be fun
But hold on son
We be up in this woods
Order for eight
Got a craving for adventure
And I just ate
Macaroni and cheese, tuna-peanut-butter-jelly
But all that hiking we be doing will
Have it burning off yo belly
Naptime
-By Fred Kayes

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