Gap Student Planned Expedition: The Final Exped

Written By: Zak Atkinson

After nearly 3 months of embarking on pre-planned expeditions for backpacking, climbing, rafting, and skiing, we had the opportunity to plan our own experience. As a group, we decided on our scenic route that led us over mesas and through canyons—but most importantly, allowed us to start walking by a leisurely 10am. The change in the group as soon as we entered Independent Student Travel (IST) was immediate. With so much time to drink in the beautiful surroundings, we found ourselves able to spend a lot of time together without having to stress about what comes next. This was our last expedition, and it reflected what we all wanted to do the most before we all returned back to our individual lives: spend just one more week cackling together and enjoying the community we had. 

We enjoyed getting into our sleeping bags before the sun set with hot drinks, and staying up to the very late hour of 10pm asking each other wild hypotheticals and questions that let us get to know all the things we were once too apprehensive to share with each other. We enjoyed our solo, which was the perfect cherry on top after all the adverse weather we had experienced over the course of the semester—it only rained the night of solo, this one night where we were all individually tent-less. I remember laughing to myself as I made an impromptu sleeping bag cover with a trash bag and a ground tarp, feeling as though nature had a mischievous sense of humor. We came back together the next day all dried out, yet ranging from peaceful, to traumatized after meeting many 8-legged neighbors while hiding in a tiny cave away from the rain. Arguably too many. We enjoyed each other’s company, and how easy it was to laugh together, making memories that will stay with us long after we scatter back across the country to our different homes. 

A friend from back home asked me if I would miss it all, or if I’m just ready to return home. I thought about it, for a moment. Will I miss Luke’s dry humor and persistence to look at the positives that can always shake you out of a poor mood and into a great one? Will I miss Alex looking at the nutritional value of my trashy candies in our ration bag and tearing them apart, refraining from giving the Uncle A seal of approval? Will I miss Dylan and I’s banter that makes me feel like we’ve known each other for far longer than we have? Or how Brooke’s laugh makes her start tearing up while making no sound, with just the biggest smile on her face? And what about Oscar’s quest to find scorpions under any rock he can turn over, determined to find one and show how adorable it is, from a nice spacious distance? Will I miss the people who have been the last faces I see before I go to sleep, and been the first voices I hear as I wake? The people who I’ve struggled with, prospered with, and everything in between? These people who I’ve cooked for and have cooked for me for months, who have been beacons of perseverance and strength even when we all just wanted to crawl into our sleeping bags and call it a day? The heinous jokes, the moonlit storytellings, the fights for Alex’s good chair, reenacting bits from movies others haven’t seen since we don’t have phones to show it, singing songs we’ve gotten stuck in our heads, and of course, rock golf/baseball tournaments? Will I miss the people who have been my entire life, each day, since February 8th?

I mean, yeah, of course. You’d think I’d write all that just to say no?

All my love,

Zak