YAWN...Awakening 2016

AWAKENING IS A PROGRAM AT HARTWICK that has about 60 first-year students form 5 groups and take on diferent challenges (known as intiatives) over its five-day course. Yesterday, I returmed from Awakening 2016 with many new memories and friends.

Saturday, Aug 25

This was move-in day... (guess what I did). After that, we all went over to Pine Lake and started! I was in Group 1, known lovingly as Group Won (thought of by yours truly). Then we went on a camping escapade and it was pretty fly.

Sunday, Aug 26

We came back from the campout mid-morning, and I'm sure we did something else...but what...I really don't remember.

Monday, Aug 27

Again, I don't quite recall... We went swimming in the lake, I remeber that.

Tuesday, Aug 28

This day I do remeber. We did low ropes and I tripped on an element. A few hours and one ER visit name later, I have a hard splint on my wrists (its like the bottom of a cast...like half of one) and a severe sprain! Fun times. On the bright side, I got to watch Paula Deen make diabetes food on TV

Wednesday, Aug 29

This day was high ropes, which I am generally great at. So, the lack of use of most my left hand was the real challenge. Despite this, I was able to complete one element and attempted the other one with valour. Huzzah!
Also, we had the Contra Dance. It was much fun!

Thursday, Aug 30

After waking up and leaving the cabin, we went to put up the Awakening 2016 flag (designed by me!) in the "sacred space" where all the three other classes' flags fly. Then I left!
Today

 

Oneonta, this is Ardsley, We Have a Problem...

IN LESS THAN T-3 HOURS, I suspect that I will have left my house for college. I'm pretty sure I have everything, although I know I will remember something as soon as I pick up the key to my room. Except one thing. My BTC sweatshirt. It's tragical. I need it. Everyone at BTC signed it and its like walking around in a hug. So it is imperative that I have it on my new life adventure. But I don't.

Perhaps it is a sign that I am grown-up enough to not have it.
Perhaps it is a sign that I will loose everything important to me at school.
Perhaps it is a sign that I will be okay away from the life I have known.

God, I really hope its not that middle one!

At worst, everyone just has to sign a new one. ;)

Embarking on a New Adventure

IT WAS ALMSOT FOUR YEARS AGO that my mother closed the door on my childhood. Or so it seemed. That night, when she closed the door, I knew that tomorrow would start the era of adolescence- high school.
I didn't know about the journey that the next four years would bring. I didn't know the irreplaceable friends I would make, the losses I would inevitably suffer, and the memories which I could not avoid making.
Just a few minutes ago, I closed the door on that time, and as it clicked into its frame, it sealed the joy into my triumphs and the sorrow into my lost battles.
Would I change anything? No. I made mistakes. I hurt myself. I hurt the people I care endlessly about. But that pain made me who I have become just as the pain I know I have caused others has changed them. And knowing that I have hurt has left its mark on me. But regrets? No. I love who I am--in all my imperfections and shortcomings. And the people who have loved me when I could not even love myself?-they are even more special.
Tomorrow, I embark on a new journey. A journey of self-discovery, a journey of wins, and a journey of losses. But most of all, a journey of finding the destination. I will leave behind my friends and my family in search of new friends, and the people who will become my family. But I will not abandon the people I know now-for they are all far to precious to lose. So don't think of it that I've left. Think of it as I'm just not around as much. Because as long as your are in my heart, we will never truly be apart.
I will return to you.