(Liz - on right - and Annie get in touch with their primitive Wild Woman/Mother Earth instincts.)
 
 
 
 

A motley crew of fourteen students and two teachers set out for an adventure on the high seas of Lake Champlain. Through trials and tribulations, laughter and cooperation, the team of sixteen discovered much about the lake, their peers, and themselves.
 A few days before leaving, I was wondering to myself, “What are those teachers thinking?” The group of students chosen to go on the expedition seemed at the time like the most random, thrown together pile of people.  I wondered how everything would work out and if we would all actually get along, but I should never have doubted the judgment of  Mr. Hooker and Mr. Peterson.  By the end of the trip the group could not have been any closer if we were blood relations.
 
 

Day two, our escapade to Button Bay, created ties between us which would have otherwise never have formed. What does not kill us makes us stronger, and this experience is a perfect example.
 
 
 
 

 By day three, we were all comfortable enough with each other to be ourselves.
No one will forget Colby singing “Alice’s Restaurant” around the campfire or Adrian’s coining of the term “Nancy” or Erin’s windshield wiper laugh. The boys became closer through their re-enactment of  Lord of the Flies, trying to rid the campgrounds of squirrels and “North American sh*t-hawks.”
 
 
 

We girls had our bonding time in the Grey Tent, our version of The Red Tent.
 
 

We all learned valuable lessons, not just about the history of the region or the current problems in the lake, but about life in general. The most important thing learned by everyone is not to judge people by first impressions, or by what you hear from rumors, or what you hear in school. The kids on the trip all surprised each other when they opened up and allowed everyone to see them for who they really are.
 
 
 

There were never huge arguments, just huge wrestling fights. Everyone sang together while walking, ate, swam, and slept together. We were stuck with each other for almost two weeks; there was no escaping, yet for ninety-nine percent of the time, no one seemed to want to get away.
 Spending thirteen days with only thirteen other students from Rutland, we can no longer just call each other peers, but consider them friends.