From Anonymous

Anonymous said...
Breathing in the cool night air, I gazed out into the distance beyond the moon-lit sand dunes that surrounded me. Exhaling slowly, I turned back to face the teenagers who were sitting with me. These four people were unlike any other teens I had ever met before. The time was nearing three in the morning, I was in the middle of the wild, it had been six months since I had been to school, and I was completely confused.In June of 2005 I was completely fed up with school. I found eighth grade be outrageously boring, exhausting, and un-original. But what frustrated me most of all was that I felt that much of what I was learning would never help me as an adult and a filmmaker. I was in desperate need of something new, something original, something different than anything I had ever done before. I decided to leave traditional school to try home schooling. Earlier that year, my family had heard about a wilderness program for kids who were home schooled. This program known as The Wilderness Awareness School met twice a week for eight hours a day out in the wild. I decided to take a big risk and try out the program. When I first arrived at the Wilderness Awareness School, I was very nervous. The program was so unlike anything that I had ever done before. My first few days at Wilderness Awareness School were more interesting than I ever could have imagined. The other teenagers in this program viewed life differently than anyone I had ever known. It was almost as if they were from a completely different culture. The people in this program changed the way I view life. Part of me felt like I didn’t belong in this program, but the other part loved every moment. In late October the Wilderness Awareness School took a trip to the Oregon Sand Dunes. It was on this trip that I spent an entire night discussing life with four other teens on the sand dunes, culminating in a moment of complete of confusion, regret, frustration, and joy. I regretted leaving traditional school, I missed all my friends I had made there and was feeling lonely. I very much enjoyed the new people I was with, but I was unsure what would happen after this year was over and that uncertainty scared me. Questions started to build up in my brain: What was my life leading up to? What was I going to do next year? I loved the people I had met through this wilderness program, but at the same time I felt out of place here. It was in this moment that I realized what I needed to do. I chose to return to the school I had been at originally. That is where I belonged.