The Traveling School

Dear traveling School gals,

Hey, my name is Melina. I did not attend the traveling school, but my highschool was very similar. It was called the Academy at Adventure Quest. I'm writing to wish you the best of luck and to let you know a little bit about what my experience was like at a rad, alternative, traveling, outdoor school.

The first thing I learned was how to make myself at home in the new country or town we were living in. At first it was really challenging, but after a few weeks I had it down to a science: Right away I would find the post office, the laundrymat, the grocery store, and somewhere that I liked to hang out and eat. Once I found these thing, I had everything I needed and felt entirely at home. During our days off from climbing, paddling and hiking, we'd drive into town and I would buy some chocolate, put my feet up on the dryer that was drying the mud and riverwater out of my clothes, and write postcards home describing the latest adventure. It was heaven.

During the times we spent in the backwoods, I found a different sort of equilibrium. Life became very simple and exciting, and the things we needed were very few. I remember being out on the trail in New Zealand for a few weeks, walking through huge fields and dense forests each day, with glaciers alongside of us that eventually became rivers, and suddenly realizing that I had everything I needed in the world on my back. My stove, sleeping bag, a bottle of iodine and food. With this realization, I just started laughing- I've never felt so awake in my whole life.

But...you've probbably already heard a lot about how fun and exciting everything will be when you finally get off that airplane, and the semester begins for real. So let me give you some real insider's info. If you're anywhere on the spectrum from a little nervous to totally freaked out- of COURSE you are. Y'all are brave, strong and doing something that most people don't do...ever. You're leaving your highschool, family, friends, sports, teams, town, country...everything you know, and you're traveling far away with brand new people for what will be an amazing, but very intense, semester. As they say in NZ...good on ya'!

Maybe, you'll love apsolutely every thing that you try. Maybe not everything will be for you. I remember bursting into tears in a bathroom at a campsite because I was so afraid of whitewater kayaking, and didn't want to go to the river the next day. (I love the sport now, although it still scares me, and it took 6 years to get here!).

When everyone went off to try going off a perfectly safe 25 foot waterfall, I told my science teacher Jen I didn't think it was for me, and the two of us spent the day mountain biking. There was that sleepless night sleeping over a glacier in the french alps during a hurricaine, trying to brace my one person tent to the ground while around me, other tents were ripping in two. There was trying to run across Barcelona with three bags of gear and missing the train to the airport, wondering how to explain to my math teacher how a giant KIA bird has honestly eaten my entire math binder (and my shoes). Then there were times that- despite how lucky I knew I was, despite the grandious beauty of the land around me and the every day adventures...I just wanted to see my friends from home, or my parents, or just sleep in my own bed.

I don't know how to explain this well, so I'll just say this: I got so utterly sick of wearing the two shirts I had packed. Sometimes, I would have given everything I owned just to take a hot shower, when there were none for miles and weeks. Sometimes, after a 63 hour van trip with the same eight people, I thought "john, if you tell that joke one more time I am JUMPING OUT OF THIS VAN I DON"T CARE IF WE ARE IN NOWHERE LOUISIANA." But apsolutely everything was part of the whole experience and I wouldn't have changed one thing...not one thing...except....when I went to AQ, there was only one other girl with me, and a lot of boys. When I talk about AQ, this was it's only big drawback. Needless to say, I'm envious of you traveling schoolers!!

I could go ON and ON....and remember, this is me talking six years after I graduated from AQ! That ought to give you some idea of what my experiene was like. But I'm just going to tell you one thing. A word of advice: call home, write home, email home. While I was climbing hard, working hard, playing hard, my parents were home, missing me. And they were the ones who made this possible. Remember that having you so far away will be much harder on them then you, so write home as much as you can and tell them all about what you're doing and how, yes, climbing may look hardcore, but it's really actually quite safe.

Have fun! Pack light! Get enough sleep!

Melina