Caroline Keohane '24
We pulled up to the campground and it looked like the scene from a Ford commercial. Dust as far as you could see, coating everything in a cakey layer of beige, with gargantuan rock piles scattered here and there. The Joshua trees, alien-looking things, with leaves more like spikey daggers littered the desert landscape looking droopy and decapitated. At least, this is what I saw when I first got there, by the end my views on the place had changed a bit.
All seventy or so of us emerged from the refreshing air conditioning of the Yukon to be bombarded by the unrelenting heat of the sun beating down on us, it was probably about 100 degrees.
However, some of the braver souls of our grade were already off. Leaping up the rock piles at impressive speed. It was not long before we had all stripped down to sports bras and were slathering on sunscreen. Ya… this isn’t exactly what we imagined for outsings week.
Despite all this, complaints were very minimal, maybe people were just happy to get a break from classes, or be outdoors. While there we enjoyed a whole slate of activities that you really cannot do anywhere else besides this special desert, and I think that got us to appreciate it more.
We tested out limits, and the grip of our hiking boots, scaling rock pile mountains. It made us practice trusting ourselves and our abilities and having one another's back when doing dangerous things like that. We even got to go into a catacomb where we ducked and lunged and twisted and turned our way through impossibly small passageways. Back to back with century-old boulders and nothing but a plastic helmet to protect you is an experience that makes you stop and think. We even made it through a passageway called the birth canal where we had to wiggle through two boulders lying down on our backs, one pressing against our chest, the other our stomach, you couldn’t breathe or see or move, but we all made it, and for me at least, I felt reborn.
And the whole way through our pod was cheering us on the whole time. Whether it was getting overly competitive in card games, making inside jokes, or just chatting, that group of people that you maybe weren’t friends with to start out became like family under the baking sun. Getting to know each other and our faculty on a personal level is so valuable in forming a strong community when back on the Mesa. I will never forget the late-night talks with my pod members that I never would have guessed I had things in common with while watching the unbelievable scene of a true starry night sky with no light pollution to dim the brilliant twinkle.
While we faced some hardships, like constantly running out of water because no amount could quench our thirst under the unrelenting sun, or being so dirty even you could smell your own stink and see the dirt under your fingernails, or being stuffy and snotty from the Cate cold that you inconveniently picked up right as you left. Nothing could damper the incredible feeling of finishing that hike or making it to the top of the rock with your pod there beside you, and looking out over the view of completely untouched earth all around, as far as you can see.
In the evenings, once the sun had beautifully left the sky with pink and orange hues, we were able to come out from our shady hiding places and really come together as a grade. We enjoyed a host of activities from the riveting Cate Olympics. The competition was intense, people were yelling, laughing, crying, it was a real production. Ultimately becoming a two-night-long endeavor. Honestly, it was so much fun just getting to participate in some friendly competition with the rest of my classmates, something we all missed out on last year, that I don’t even remember which pod one. I just remember eating all the marshmallows and m&ms and Oreos afterward.
Under the enchanting night sky, sprinkled with stars and a view of awe-striking mountains in the background, combined with Pen’s tear-jerking performance, it was hard to not feel at peace in the desert during our coffee house night. However the most moving evening activity I think we can all agree on was the pinecone “cholla” ceremony. We missed out on that last year, and after experiencing it, I finally realized what everybody kept talking about when they said, “the spirit of this place”. Person after person kept coming up, in front of all their classmates to express love and gratitude for the amazing group of individuals that make up our grade. It was touching, to say the least.
Looking out of the window of the Yukon as we pulled out of our campsite for the last time we didn’t see just dust and rocks, we saw the beautiful land that we got the opportunity to call home for a few days, we say the place where we talked to that person for the first time or made a funny memory that we joke about now. We saw and appreciated the rawness of that place where we got to be our raw selves too. Joshua Tree allowed us to see our true selves not just because we didn't have to makeup and a shower, but because we had time to experience and appreciate one another, and I think we really needed that.
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