Once at my reflection spot, it is unusually difficult to free my mind of all the nonsense that is my life. Instead of attempting to clear my mind, I allow my thoughts to bubble about just like the rumble of the rapids in front of me. My mind is being mostly overtaken by thoughts about how this year is coming to a close in about three weeks. After that, I will be in Connecticut for a month and then I will take off to the other side of the world to the wonderful land of New Zealand.
Like all people studying abroad, I will be making new friends, trying new things, and essentially living a new life. There is no way I can be entirely prepared for that experience abroad, no matter how much research I do on the country or how much I plan ahead of time. One thing I can be sure of, however, is what I have to come back to.
Regardless of how much I will have changed or we all will have changed once we reunite next spring, we will all be back here in the same situation. We will either feel estranged from people whom we believe haven’t changed the way we did, or we will be reunited with friends that seem to be entirely different people. It will be a difficult and exciting time for everyone, but either way, I know that the bonds we have made as a group in Earth Lodge will remain. We all have lived on this wonderful hall all year long, bonding in ways that could never be recreated in another setting. We have learned about the history of our natural surroundings; all the while writing our own history together, the history of our lives in Earth Lodge: the question game, stargazing, Han’s laugh, eating passport, tree ID’s, lounge conversations, disagreements, book club, nonsense on field trips (I can keep going forever). Our history is like that of the James River, it will never happen again in the exact same way, but that is what makes the history so interesting and beautiful to remember. Like the history of the James, we will be able to use our history we made in our Earth Lodge community to make a better world for the generations after us. With the history and information we learned about the James River, we are able to take the initiative to improve the river and the rest of the environment with our newfound knowledge and passion. Likewise, we will use our friendship to set an example of what the next Earth Lodgers could be, and we will use our experience to help them through our own process and make it better for them.
It is a scary thought that everything will be different in some way next year, but with our knowledge and unconditional bonds of friendship we have created within this living and learning group, we can harness the change as a form of beauty and growth for Earth Lodge instead of letting it break us apart. I love living with every single one of you, and I can’t wait to see what our friendships have in store for the future.
With that, I leave you with this quote by Chris McCandless. I have to admit, I am a fan.
“…make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty.”