The Nature of Transformation
It would be a long way from Sunday to Wednesday. We were 19 students, 4 supervisors, 10 canoes, 35 kilometres, 7 portages, 1 experience.
We set out.
We left it all behind. A complete escape into ourselves. Our own energy transformed into movement.
As the black flies gathered, so too did the expressions of transformations.
For many of these students who travelled the rivers and lakes, it was there first time setting course in this manner. Sure some of them had camped, but “really pansy camping,” as one of the boys told me. Few of them had left their security behind and had ever left themselves so vulnerable. And it showed.
A student who is known for being “the tough guy” who many teachers ‘warned me’ about before the trip, often asked for guidance and support. He was left in situations unfamiliar, where he asked for help to set up his tents, help to pry a few leeches from his feet, and he was left to talk openly about his relationship with his father.
Typical social hierarchies never left when nature is involved. And sure enough, on the last day, after battling the high winds and very precarious paddling, it was the entire group of 23 people who were hooting and hollering as we each found our own success.
The trip was magnificent.
It made me reflect on how I respond and react to fearful situations, like the student who stood on the dock half-way through a tough paddle uttering expletives, refusing to get back in the boat. His anger was his method of dealing with his fear. After letting him bluster, he got back into the canoe and championed on. Do I put my back up when I’m confronted by my fears and when I take a risk? Are students’ reactions to school-related fears met with discipline, rather than understanding?
It made me reflect on time and space. Giving ourselves the time to connect with each other, away from social norms, allowed many to explore parts of themselves that are often kept hidden. You can’t hide yourself in the trivialities and mundane nature of the day to day when you are disconnected. You must reveal parts of yourself. And, it is okay.
Ultimately, after four days of hard work, paddling against a fierce wind into white-capped seas, each student walked out transformed from the experience. Some humbled, some strengthened, some softer, some more connected, this was learning at its finest.
The nature of transformation is that you can often find it in nature.
3 Comments
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Scott! This is a great post. I have been anticipating you writing about your trip! I wish you would have gone a little more in depth about how the students reflected on their experiences. What I also wonder was the vulnerability they felt without a technological connection to the outside world. Did they experience phantom limb?
I’m not sure how they’ve reflected on the trip, I’ve seen only few of them since we’ve been back. It is something I’m quite interested in.
I think part of their vulnerability was in feeling disconnected at first, but essentially their connections became face to face. In our final night, kids who started as complete strangers were sharing intimate details of their childhood, their hopes for the futures, etc. They were revelling in what would normally be a vulnerability.
I think a few of them missed the connectedness technology provided, but I think the real vulnerabilities were more visceral. They were physical and emotional. They were real. They weren’t fabricated by the media and the desire to consume.
I was surprised that even on the drive home from up North to the school, not one kid in my van was on the cell phone other than to call their parents to pick them up. There was no texting, etc. They were living within their community; they had created.
Great post Scott! This sounds like, as you said, a transformative trip. I wish more kids could have this experience, especially when we live in a such a beautiful country. Thanks for sharing!