N.G.U
Gang
Kelly's
Adventure
My
Story
For
me this was the first time on an expedition. I took it as a personal
challenge to see how far I was going to get. I needed to believe in myself.
I needed to prove that I can do anything I set my mind to.
I had fun especially when we would set up the tents. Marlene and I would
stay
up all night talking about everything and everybody. Hiking was the
biggest
challenge especially the second day of hiking. We got lost and ended
up walking 13 miles. That day was nicknamed "The Meat Grinder". After we
finished
hiking, the next day we went to an elderly home in Keene,NewYork.
We
spent the day with eldery people and we talked, played games and sat with
them. They seemed very happy to have visitors.
When we started the canoeing I was about to give up because I was extremely
tired and my body hurt badly. I even turned purple. One of
the guys talked to me and encouraged me to keep on going. On the second
day we canoed 11 miles because we had to return one of the guys. It was
a very sad day because I thought we were going to finish the course as
a whole group plus the guy that left was the one that encouraged me when
I wanted to give up.
That day we also had a water fight on the canoes which was kind of fun.
The rest of the canoeing was o.k. Nothing interesting happened. We
went rock climbing and I made it half way because I was very tired and
the harness was really bothering me. We picked and ate wild blueberries,
which were really sweet.
When we finished rock climbing we went back to base camp where some of
the other instructors prepared a banquet for us. While they were busy doing
that our group went to take the first shower after eleven days and got
to use soap. We got back to the banquet and they had prepared cheeseburgers,
burgers, and salad, hot dogs, tater-tots, and drinks. While the guys
played football, the girls sat and talked about the expedition experience,
what we learned and joked around. We all teased each other, especially
Barbara.
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Jen and me canoeing
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Shorty and I talking while
canoeing
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Shorty,Dwight and I doing the
macarena
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On the last day we ran 2.5 miles but I couldn't run, so I walked up to
the entrance of base camp. There Jake started running with us and
told Barbara and I that we couldn't let him pass us or we wouldn't go home.
So I took off running and got to the finish line where I fell, exhausted.
We got our "street clothes" and got dressed and we left the Adirondacks.
It was a 4-hour drive to the Bronx.
The most challenging part of the trip for me was not taking a shower for
such a long time and hiking with 30 pounds on my back. The only part
that I found that was really difficult was getting bit by bugs.
Working with others was a little challenging because I'm use to being independent.
Being away from home and modern comforts for 12 days wasn't much of a challenge
because I'm use to being alone and I adapt to different situations easily.
When we were hiking the "meat grinder" I kept drifting into daydreams and
I would always think about what I could do to help the rest of the group
and it was that day that I realized I felt happy when I helped others even
if it meant
putting
myself into more stress.
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I was pretending to beat up
shorty
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Doing my back stretch.
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Belaying for a rock climber.
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I
never felt afraid of anything because I knew I had friends that would encourage
me and would help me get to my feet whenever I fell. The only problem that
we had was that I thought was getting out of hand was the way we would
argue about little things. I thought it was stupid of us to argue
like that. This expedition was not in vain because I learned that the mind
is stronger than the body.
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Picking wild blueberries.
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Barbara and I playing with
the fettucini.
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Writing in my journal
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The original group. Jen is
taking the picture.
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*The picture on top is of my finger
injury which I have no clue how it got there*
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