The Unknown

One day in January of 2011, I was on facebook doing the normal “what’s everyone up to” thing when an ad caught my attention on the right side of the page. The ad was for NOLS and had a picture of a hiker… hmm. At this point I had already selected a masters program in Adventure Learning, and it seemed like maybe the two would fit together, so I clicked the button.
 I am an indoor rock climber in CT. Never thought there was much outdoors to climb around here. While looking through the National Outdoor Leadership School webpage, I found that it was indeed a school that teaches its’ students in the “real-world” setting of the wilderness. COOL!  Took a look at the class types and of course the Rock Climbing course caught my attention so I read up on it. There was a 30 day and a 21 day Rock Climbing Course in the Wind River Range of Wyoming that taught students all about outdoor rock climbing, leave no trace, some rescue skills, and basically how to travel and live in the wilderness.  WELL THIS SOUNDED FANTASTIC!!! Showed my mother who of course immediately said, “this is so you…” We quickly googled images of the Wind River Range and, well, you do it yourself and you’ll understand.
Emailed my advisor at my graduate school of Plymouth State University to find out if they accepted the schools credit for graduate school and to see if anyone had used a course for credit before. His reply came back as yes they do accept, as long as I follow the strict rules, and many students have used this approach. He also stated “As a former NOLS instructor and current wilderness educator, I believe that this process is an excellent way to bring these skills and competencies into your program of study. In particular the courses designated OE (Outdoor Educator) are particularly appropriate to this program. To complement this backcountry education, a student would want to be sure to take our 2-credit Risk Management in Experiential Education online course, which is taught in Winter terms, and occasionally in Summer term also as need dictates.”
SOLD!  But not on the outdoor educator course just yet… reasons?  Well they are a longer course and I am a full-time teacher which interfered with the course dates, and I needed to test the waters first. What if I hated it?
The whole entire month I went back and forth on whether or not to sign up, or not sign up. I have a ton of undergraduate students loans I still need to pay back, and I would probably have to pay for this course out of pocket… decisions, decisions.  One day in February, I bit the bullet and just went for it. I was kind of getting sick of my unsure attitude. I needed to live a little. Go crazy just once and take a course that will probably be the most physically and mentally challenging thing I will ever do in my life.  For goodness sake, I am 27 years old, in my first year of teaching, and my life is NOT over yet. So, it was done. On July 19th, 2012 I would be heading into the Wind River Range of Wyoming for a 3 week experience of a lifetime. And I had NO idea what to expect.
From there I booked plane tickets, transportation (there really isn’t much transportation in Wyoming…since there are probably more cows then there are humans), begged a store to sponsor me for some gear. I got lucky with a smaller local store who gave me some bucks for gear in exchange for product reviews and anything else they wanted from me. They hooked me up with some boots, jacket, new rock shoes and more. Would you believe, that everywhere I went for gear (Trailblazer, Eastern Mountain Sports, REI) there was at least one employee who assisted me on the floor or at the cash register that had taken a course. Talk about pumping me up. “It was such an incredible experience.” “Definitely life changing.” “You’re going to love it!”  And they had all taken different courses.  NOLS graduates are everywhere! From my advisor to the people who assisted me in picking gear… it’s amazing. Why haven’t I heard of this place before?!!?
The full nervousness of the whole thing didn’t hit me until I left for the airport at 3:00am the morning of the 7th of July. I was really doing this. I had finally stopped stressing about money, stressing about would I be fit enough to do this, and those other thoughts that come into your head when you are unsure. There was no turning back. I was alone, and heading out for the unknown. Something, at that time, I had no idea would change my life.

I kept a journal the entire 3 weeks of my course. I will share my thoughts and doings of each day on my blog in separate posts. I hope it inspires you to go do something you always wanted to do. Especially if there was something that was holding you back from doing it.