Finding That Thing Within

Great Difficulty Mines The Soul

When you give people the opportunity to challenge themselves often times something deep in their soul rises to the surface.

Even in small schools cliques and groups can undermine unity and cohesiveness.

But what happens when you take those kids out of the hallways for five days, put them in kayaks and ask them to take on the biggest challenge of their lives to this point? Magic.

Seventy some students from Stevenson High School in Washington State showed us what they are truly made of. For decades their aunts and uncles, mothers and fathers, have made this same 132 mile trek from Beacon Rock to Astoria, Oregon in a kayak.

It’s a right of passage for most.

They train, they learn about the pioneer spirit of Lewis & Clark but most of all they find a connection to the place they were born and to a community that truly loves them.

There are plenty of tears, injuries, moments of the greatest frustration but in the end, they find that thing inside that says to them you can do this, you will do this, do not let yourself down.

There are pirates among the ranks. Students who take over boats, throw community leaders and teachers into the water, and so much laughter.Fun is a prerequisite to adventure. You can’t have one without the other.

Boundaries found back home in the hallways slip away.

Even in small schools some slip into obscurity, here, they are truly seen.

When it’s all over their parents and friends show up at the end to pick them up.

Pride is attractive when it reflects from parent to child or vice-versa.

What these kids walk away with is not just a sense of accomplishment but a connection to the community that is deep and strong.

Many will leave home but they know this is where they come from…these are their people.

We will have much more of their experience in the near future.

Why? Because what is going on here can be replicated or modified for other communities.

Our kids need to know they are stronger than they think….We need to understand how capable they are to take on the world we are leaving them.

It’s easy to think the world is falling apart….and then you get dropped into Skamania County and see, something is falling away not apart and that has to happen so that something new can be born.