Spring break is finally here for us up here in the Sierra Nevada and I could not be more stoked about it! We all have such different plans and things we want to do in these next few days, and hopefully, we get to do all of them. Some of us are headed home to just hang out with our family and finally just get to relax and be couch potatoes for approximately 8 days. Others have decided to go backpacking through the amazing Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah; I can only imagine how beautiful that is. A few students are doing road trips for the heck of it and to also see family which will be a wonderful time to reconnect with loved ones they have not seen in a while.
So many things are happening this week and this break is beyond deserved but this will be the first time our close and intimate cohort will be apart for the first time since arriving at High Sierra. The feelings are bittersweet and although we are beyond excited to go on our way and do our own things, most of us are bummed that we do not get to take everyone with us. This break away from everyone will be a small taste of what life after High Sierra will be like once the semester is over. To be completely honest, none of us are even remotely ready for that... I know I'm not thats for sure. For now though, we will think of only good things and how much we cannot wait to go visit our favorite hometown restaurants. Before we know it this well deserved break will end and we'll all be back it, hittin' those long runs hard (as we are about a month away from 1/2 marathon race day) and hittin' those books even harder. Spring break... you are welcomed! written 03/01/18
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Howdy! My name is Jazmine Itzep and I am currently a student studying away at the wonderful High Sierra semester in Bass Lake, CA. Approximately an hour drive from the amazing Yosemite Valley and all of its gloriousness. This semester I will be writing weekly about my experience while up here in these beautiful mountains and what exciting new experiences and adventures come my way! Before I go any further I think its only right to share some fun facts about myself. I am currently a junior studying commercial music with an emphasis in business and my primary instrument is the cello which I have been playing for about 10 years now! I also grew up in the San Bernardino area, which is about an hour or less from APU's main campus. A few things I am ALWAYS super pumped to get into are hiking, thrift shopping (you'd be amazed at all the cool and cheap stuff I've come across!), and riding my bike. I am also a deep lover of boba, coffee, memes and Vine references. As we enter week five up here at High Sierra and are now truly settled in and comfortable, our curriculum finally starts to become a set and daily pattern for us. We finally begin to realize we have more reading than we thought we did and that we probably shouldn't have stayed up and watched those last five episodes of The Office last night. Philosophy and John Calvin wait for no one! Until you remembered that if you can survive trek (thats a story for another day) than you definitely can read all 70 pages, highlighted and annotated, of Calvin tonight in bed before your 8AM class tomorrow. Say a prayer and wish us luck because we are all going to need it! written 02/05/18 High Sierra was the most transformative semester of my college experience at APU. While I was there, I described it as a pressure cooker, condensing a lifetime of memories, education, and spiritual formation into a mere four and a half months. However, what I didn’t realize was how it would continue to pressure-cook me into the person I want to be long after my time in the mountains. It has framed my perception of the world and how I see myself participating in the world. I will never forget the last day of our second backpacking trip of the semester. My trek team was sitting at the base of Devils Bathtub in the wilderness of Yosemite National Park, where a continuous trickle of water washed the surface of a giant slab of granite. My team sang the doxology, first by looking at the sublime scenery of the valley and granite, and a second time, looking at one another’s faces. It was in that moment that I felt a depth of emotion for the beautiful people surrounding me that I had not felt in my entire life. Not a single person had a dry eye, and I realized in that moment what my time at High Sierra was all about--living into every moment with intention and depth. Yes, the education is challenging and rewarding and the backpacking is thrilling, but I am always struck by the relationships I formed as the most significant part of my journey. Now, I live unabashedly and full heartedly, never wasting the moments or the people I come into contact with (even the strangers). My poem captures that desire to continue dancing, even when most my High Sierra semester has graduated and moved across the country and world. With all of that said, go boldly, and know that this is a radically transformative time to be alive. Dancing with Time Remember that one time we danced. The rocks cried The moon smiled And we fearlessly shook the Mountains Waving our shirts as a symbol of Beauty and love. Beauty and love I learned, while Looking at faces and granite and Quarreling with dead men. We shouted and cried and laughed Filling us so full We stretched Now, a little deflated We ache. For breath to fill our lungs again A breath scented by pines and dirt Whispered by lips, I know A collective sigh– This is life. Remember that one time we danced. The music is faint But I hear it, I hear the feet stomping on chairs and tables And hearts thumping From laughter And ending on our backs in a puddle Of arms and legs and beards. For your sake, let us dance again In remembrance, of when We lived to dance. By Ary Petrosky The day I stepped onto the High Sierra campus was the day I remembered my passion for adventure. Adventure that spread from the outdoors to the classroom. This passion for adventure had long since slept in the dormant part of myself, waiting to be awakened by a quiet campus in Bass Lake, California, where forty students gathered to take on the greatest, most challenging, fun semester of our college careers. I had no idea what was in store. Well, I had an idea, but I no idea it would be so different from my initial expectations, and not in a bad way. There was something strange in the air on that first night in Bass Lake. Something tense, like a magic trick just before the magician pulls the curtain away. I desperately wanted to know what was behind the curtain at High Sierra, and as I took a step into the greatest adventure of my life I began to discover more and more of what it was that drew me to High Sierra in the first place: adventure. Adventure is a big word. People claim it for their own, taking pictures with cool filters and cool captions to show just how cool their adventurous lives are. But the High Sierra adventure, for me, was a different kind of adventure than the type you post on social media. Sure, there were pictures taken, pictures that I love, but behind the pictures was an experience beyond the capability of being described. Behind the pictures was a challenge that took me to the intellectual, spiritual, and emotional depths of myself, and it all started in the classroom. Starting at High Sierra, I came to grips with the power of thought. Thought about philosophy, about literature, but, truly, thought about what it means to be a human being, living and craving adventure. This is where it all started for me. In a classroom unconstrained by walls and rules and a preoccupation with saying the “right” thing; a classroom that was both constructed and free all at the same time. A classroom of adventure. And this is what High Sierra was, and is: a classroom where adventure takes place in and outside of the mind. It is a classroom where my sense of adventure grew from being limited to insta-worthy experiences to being a total body experience. Adventure, I realized, is nothing if I am not thinking about it, about myself, about the world around me and how I dive into it, shape it, and am changed, transformed, and impacted. In pictures, it looks like High Sierra is a place of recreation. It is, of course, but no exclusively. For behind the pictures, High Sierra is a place of stories. Stories that tell so much more than a picture can, for in this case a picture is only worth half of what the stories from High Sierra tell. These stories share of classes that extend way beyond the official classroom to the dinner table, to the campfire, to the trail winding through undiscovered backcountry terrain. These stories share of challenges faced, victories won, and friendships forged in the process. They share of late-night discussions around a table and a campfire, in sleeping bags under the stars and on top of the tallest rock formations in Yosemite National Park. These are not just stories that caption perfectly posed pictures. High Sierra stories are messy. They are filled with challenge and passion and thought. They are, at their core, human, and that’s what is celebrated at High Sierra. Because the human experience is more than just a paper or two turned in for a grade, or a picture that suddenly becomes a personal advertisement. The human experience is about living in such a way that involves the whole self, and this is what High Sierra truly showed me in my treasured time there. The human experience is about adventure. By Tyler Wilborn |
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