If I had a dollar for every time I heard Cliff Whetung ’13 exclaim, “Please don’t die!” to Ben Levenson ’13 while the two impersonated prefrosh in compromising medical situations, I still wouldn’t have enough money to pay for the priceless experience of the Intersession Outdoor Action Leader Training Trip.
At first, I signed up for the trip not out of a love for the outdoors, but as the finale to over 50 hours of leadership and first-aid training. I expected a week of drilling and testing those skills, most of which I had forgotten before Intersession even came around. I had heard OA leaders discuss how fun their individual training trips were, but, to me, the LTT seemed like it would be an arduous test — one I approached with great anxiety.
However, upon meeting the other members of my group, I was happy to note how the anxious feeling disappeared as I realized we were a group that could learn together and still have fun along the way. That is not to say the week was all fun and games. Sure, I especially enjoyed midnight massage trains, stargazing while laying on warm Therm-a-Rests and loud games of Big Booty played while dodging trees and rocks on a late-night hike. But between games of Bippity-Bippity-Bop and other OA favorites, there was plenty of time for actual simulations. In the course of one week, my six fellow leader trainees and I had to identify and treat a snake bite, a dehydrated freshman, bee stings, anaphylaxis, a total brain injury complicated by increasing intracranial pressure, a fall caused by hypoglycemia, severe constipation, a dislocated patella, a broken arm, a bloody nose, three heart attacks, one severe burn and two freshmen who happened to need CPR after suffering internal bleeding caused by a tree falling on them while attempting to trowel. It’s a list worthy of making any doctor cry. In addition to practicing these HEART Wilderness First Aid skills, the leaders of the day also had to face soft-skills challenges like inappropriate freshmen and freshmen in love. If a day of simulation was not enough to force some learning, each day was followed by late-night debriefs and reflections.
So I guess you can say many things about us OA leaders — that our games are dorky or our almost cult-like belief in LNT is slightly unsanitary — but you cannot say that we are poorly trained. We are also fun-loving people. In what other context would it be socially acceptable for a group of college-aged students to play ninja in the middle of Orlando International Airport or cheer each other on as we finish a bag of hummus sprinkled with honey, raisins and M&M’s?
Perhaps the best aspect of the LTT for me was not being thrown into training situations but being thrown out of stressful school situations. Instead of compulsively checking my email for ‘Prince’ assignments or internship decisions, I got to spend my mornings taking down bear bags. Instead of constantly making meetings over meals, I got to play games like Wa! and sing silly songs like “Down by the Bay.” And instead of looking straight at the ground as I run from one place to another on campus, I got to look up at Ocala National Forest and appreciate the beauty of the landscape around me. After all, here in the Orange Bubble, it is far too easy to be caught up in personal stress and to forget how to goof off, live simply and act with the same unconditional friendliness that once existed on Frosh trips.
If you had told me a mere five months ago that I would enthusiastically volunteer to spend my Intersession without running water, Internet or air conditioning in the Florida heat, I would have called you crazy. But now I think there is something beautiful about giving up the conveniences of Princeton life and taking some time to discover nature, new friendships and myself — without complicating factors like student organizations and GPAs. After a week of broadcasting my toothbrushing, consuming 130 tortillas, talking park rangers out of kicking us out of our campsite by discussing last week’s episode of “The Big Bang Theory” and doing the traditional “Fill My Cup,” I have a week’s worth of stories that I cannot wait to share with my friends back here and with future generations of OA participants.
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