~LAND/SEA~

Summer 1998

Calm. Nothing beats waking up to the rhythmic lapping of water, enveloped by a silent forest. I'm poised on a jagged rock--my solo spot--with no food or other distractions. The idea is to have time to contemplate the Land/Sea experience. You get in a rather strange mood sitting alone in the woods, watching the sun make it's arc across the sky, the entire process…I write in my journal. It holds the memories that convey the intensity of the program. The following reflects only a fraction of my experience...
I chose to begin my transition from high school to college by heading to Killarney Provincial Park in Southern Ontario with about seventy other incoming freshmen that I did not know. The Land/Sea orientation program involves three weeks of group camping in the wilderness--hiking, canoeing, portaging, climbing, backpacking, cooking, and sailing a 60-foot brigantine on the Great Lakes.
As I skim over my journal entries a page about portaging jumps out at me. I now see that some of my first impressions of people changed drastically after portaging an 80 lb. canoe with them. My first partner was Cameron--a guy who tried to "play it cool" and hide behind his sunglasses. Yet, when we portaged together, he was a completely different person than I had imagined. Cameron was encouraging and patient; never complaining when I had to rest. It was nice to become acquainted with other students on a personal level prior to formal classes. I learned from my patrol that in the future I have to remember to look beyond first impressions. Friendships develop in some odd situations.
To understand courage, you must first taste fear (Dr. Jones) -- sums up our day spent repelling and climbing. In our debriefing we discussed why we were able to take the plunge over the cliff. The key is TRUST. Trust in myself, the person who checked my knots, and my belayer. However, the biggest step we all took was feeling fear, identifying the feeling, and then consciously choosing the path that goes against that fear. This experience also made me realize that I need to form a network of other people who will be able to remind me of my accomplishments. It will be beneficial to have others who can say: "Kate, you were on Land/ Sea…you climbed a 140 foot sheer rock face…you can write that term paper!" Sometimes we all need a little reminder of our accomplishments for encouragement.
The motto of Land/Sea is "Challenge by Choice." You aren't forced to do anything, and you decide what you want to try and what you can handle. This will probably be a theme throughout my college years--to challenge myself to do things I don't think I can do, but also to be reasonable about my expectations for myself.
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