Sawyer Chipley Febuary 3, 2014 A Change of Scenery

I always struggled in the nor al school setting, I felt I was ne!er reaching y full potential, and it always see ed li"e public schools were holding e bac"# $hey failed to teach us how to deal with the real world, and single out our own personal s"ills, ost i portantly leadership# %y other and I decided I needed a change of scenery### and a different school#

Alas"a

&ational 'utdoor (eadership School

After arri!ing at the &'(S head)uarters *arly the ne+t orning we load up the school in Alas"a, the students and the instructors supplies on our school bus and are ready for our were introduced for the first ti e# ,e all "new first class# soon enough we would "now each other all too well because we were going to spend the ne+t onth bac"pac"ing in the bac"-country of Alas"a together# So we begin to gather our school supplies#

$his ar"s the !ery first hi"e on our ad!enturous e+pedition#

'ur first lesson is taught by our course leader, there will be any ore to follow#

(earning how to read#

Studying is essential, we ust learn the aterial we are taught because we are put into situations where your !ery life is at sta"e#

.roble sol!ing# ,e are gathered to locate the safest decent down the pass because there are no trails to guide us#

$ea wor"# ,e are so close together to pre!ent any loose roc"s fro hitting our class ates below and to catch anyone who looses their footing#

/ebriefing is necessary after e!ery day because you are able to understand what you need to i pro!e on and it is a good ti e to share anything new you learned with your class#

$he wilderness has a relentless and unusual way of teaching, it is uch different than a nor al school setting# I beca e !ery fa iliar with one certain lesson while bac"pac"ing across the treacherous terrain of the $al"eetna ountain range# $he lesson goes li"e this, you stri!e to reach your goal, you thin" the end is near, but it is not, then you thin" you are at the top this ti e, but you are not# ,hen you thin" you can a"e it no further and you are ready to gi!e up, are you actually able to see the top# So you ust force yourself to cli b with the little bit of will you ha!e left, only then are you able to

acco plish your goal and reach the top, at least this ti e# It will boost your oral to help you with your ne+t obstacle or pea" you ust face because there will always be ore cli bing#

I also learned that so eti es tas"s ay see fairly easy but when you get going it turns out to be the hardest 0ob you ha!e e!er faced# For e+a ple, in this picture, we only had a four ile hi"e ahead of us but that ere four ile hi"e too" us ten and a half hours to co plete# So ne!er underesti ate so ething because you ight regret your poor preparations later#

$his was the o ent of truth, were are gathered in the circle because we all successfully graduated fro the &ational 'utdoor (eadership School#