10/16/13-Word of the Day is Patience

“Word Of The Day Is Patience.”

Emily Chathas

                  Today was filled with laughs, learning experience and being called out for own faults, completing tasks that wanted to be; achieved, anger, annoyance, and the last one lots of warm fuzzys. Today is a day that I know I will remember and I’m glad I get to share with you all on how it was. This morning I woke up and it was cold and my tent-mates and I were dreading opening up the tent to get out. But after we finally got out, we all did our normal routine to get the bear bags down and get breakfast going. Cassie, Liz, and I do a really good job at working together to get things done. Next thing that happend was we met up with rest of the group and had our morning debrief. Andrew had told us to get pen and piece of paper and to write our names on it. After he told us that we were going to do, which was to pass it around to each person and write a positive thing about each person, I was very excited and eagerly waiting for it to happen. While it was happening I thought to myself that each person plays a role in this group of ECOEE 2013 it wouldn’t be complete if one was missing. The group finished up and it made my heart warm to see the smiles on people faces when they read all positive notes people wrote about them. Our group calls them warm fuzzys. The big thing that was on todays to do list was to practice how to belay someone while climbing, but Jeff had the plan that his good old friend Paul Petzoldt did with him; which we were going to the same thing that he done in the past, which was practice belaying each other in groups. But the key thing was if you did something wrong or were called out, you and rest of the group had to start over and go to the back of the line. I could see the patience running thin and peoples wanting to do it right quickly. But I know for myself and some others that they enjoyed the learning experience today and realized each step is important to get to the next. Even in the end, I had got called out by some members for putting gum underneath a stone and leaving it. I definitely did not like getting caught, but it happens. I leave you with this, our group is learning a ton about climbing, learning to appreciate one another more, and also enjoying incredible scenery we get look at each morning and night. Couldn’t be more thankful for everything!