One messy food clean up later we were ready. The two students had made a superlative award for everyone: Best Music Tastes, Inquisitive Philosopher, How Are You Energized?, Chill Dude, and many more. During the show I kept thinking about how eleven days earlier, this crew didn’t know each other’s names. They started out quiet and shy, and ended with personalized awards and lifelong friends.
This coming together over course always takes me by surprise. Course seems to fly by and our time out there seems to end as quickly as it begins. How can so much happen in less than two weeks? But as I listened to the students present their awards, it was clear they had experienced so much together. The presenters kept saying it was so hard to pick just one award for each person. How could they possibly choose just one when they had seen so much in each other? They saw each other through a late night paddle, miles of hiking, crying around a campfire, laughing around that same campfire, hours of games (this crew loved good Veggie Off), and cooking every meal. They saw each other at highs and lows and instead of pulling away they went all in. I guess it goes to show the family that doesn’t shower stays together.
