Amanda, tending to her newly forming blister, or what we liked to call
“hot spots”. She was a slender girl, one who looked poised and energetic.
To know her would be to know that she was not only those things, but
also beautiful in mind and soul; she was both adventurous and proper.
Two other students, Trevor and Keenan, were working on boiling water
for our meal. Trevor was an enigma to me. He had dark, shaggy hair, a
nose ring, and an athletic build. Then he’d open his mouth and you’d
realize this guy had some really solid thoughts going on. And Keenan?
Well, Keenan was a badass. He had this long, red, wavy hair that
resembled that of Shaun White in his earlier years and this ridiculous
aquamarine windbreaker paired with bright red wind pants. To be honest,
his character kind of resembled his rain gear… a bit wonky, but totally
and completely functional. And then there were the last two students
still returning from their stumps. Morgan, the taller of the two, was a
quirky and well-learned young scholar who was lighthearted, witty, and
absolutely full of life. She reminded me of a forest nymph or a character
from Shakespeare. And finally, Lexi appeared from the brush close to
the stream’s edge. To define her by action, Lexi is the girl who climbs the
granite face and once at the top breathes every breath she can while she
pastels the scene onto a piece of scrap paper. On top of that, if she could
do all of this with wine in her belly, she would be all the more pleased
with life. In short, she lived every moment of the trip in exuberance.
Aside from chilly, early mornings, her presence was extremely engaging.
That night we all discussed what we heard and what we felt about
what we heard. It was agreed that the sound of an airplane was more than
just noise pollution. It revealed the human impact and how unyielding
and far-reaching it really is. To think that humans had stretched so far as
to leave even federally sworn wilderness stained was not surprising. Yet it
still filled me with unparalleled rage. I burned inside to know that there
were such problems and nothing I could really do about them. That night
we departed from the tarp, girls to one tent and boys to another. We
talked a long while about life and the meaning behind it all but yielded
to our tired bodies before we could figure it all out. Luckily enough, we
bundled up well before drifting off.
In the morning, I was the first to awaken. My uncovered face felt
the frigid air first and as I wriggled out of my bag I immediately realized
there was a light, mid-spring frost. Surprisingly, I didn’t rouse anyone as
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