Over the last week, I took a break off from law school to indulge myself in one of the greatest things ever created: Alternative Spring Break. This time I worked with USC's Alternative Spring Break program as opposed to Illinois's (I took 2 trips with them in 2007 and 2008, as chronicled in the archives). This time, we went to Orcas Island, Seattle, to discover wildlife, nature, and deal with environmental issues. The group primarily worked on paving a new trail deep in the woods on Orcas Island that would later become a campsite, but the trip itself was so much more. Here's why March 12-19, 2011 was one of the best weeks I've ever experienced in my life.
1. Working on the trail: I'm not good with tools. I've never learned how to change a flat tire, to fix a bike wheel, or build a birdhouse. So when the park ranger at Orcas started passing out long outdoor equipment with fancy names like McCloud, pickaxe, and Maddux, I knew I was in for a hard time. And it was no joke. I constantly was being advised, almost impatiently, by my fellow volunteers (some much younger than me) about how to work a tool,
2. living in a cabin: Spending time in 10-bed, summer-camp style log cabins gave me the outdoor camp experience that I've never really had. Sure, there were bugs, it was cold, the beds were creeky, there was no internet service (more on this later), but that's exactly what I needed to get in the feel of the outdoor experience. Imagine if we were living in a Best Western hotel or something, then going into the woods and doing outdoor work
3. NO INTERNET SERVICE.......at first, this was the thing I most dreaded about the trip: No ability to check my emails, no facebook, no fantasy sports (fantasy baseball draft coming up, yikes), no March Madness updates, no youtube.....Ahhhh!!!! But I didn't know that an Internet vacation was probably exactly what I needed, and I think I'm going to implement "Blackberry-free Fridays" or something from now on. Without the distractions of the internet, I was forced to focus on the work at hand, and actually talk to real people (gasp). Personal interactions were better, quality of work was better, ability to formulate thoughts were better, the lifestyle was better...it made me think back to maybe 20 years ago, how adults lived without blackberries, Internet, and wireless service. O the good ol' days.
4. Air quality, air quality, air quality.....without the polluted atmosphere and vehicle emission-fueled toxic smog surrounding the LA, I felt so much better, but there's something about the air in the Pacific Northwest........the cold, brisk feel on your skin is really refreshing, the sea breeze blowing in from the Pacific Ocean makes you wonder what it was like on the Oregon Trail...nothing like the hot, always-present dry air that's Southern California. GREAT to take a break from it.....my lungs were happy for it, my body was happy for it.
5. The people........every time I do a trip like Alternative Spring Break, I am amazed and humbled by the people that I meet. Always very accomplished, always very smart, but most importantly, all very high-quality human beings. And it figures...Alternative Spring Break attracts people of a certain demographic: young, college students who are service-oriented and want to do something to better others and better themselves...to want to meet new people and expand their horizons, and when you get 10-20 people like that all together on a single trip, great things can happen. One of the smartest things I've ever heard goes something like this: "You can go to the most exotic places on earth with people you dislike and it won't be enjoyable, but if you have people around you who you enjoy, it doesn't matter where you go." So true about this trip. The group of 21 people could had fun in the bottom of a basement somewhere just talking about life. They were funny, compassionate, loving, supportive, thoughtful, friendly, intelligent, and creative. It was just a wonderful mix of people, with majors in accounting, English, creative writing, engineering, bio, music, Japanese, you name it. So diverse as well.
6. The nicknames.....for some reason this trip had some AWESOME nicknames, and I didn't even have one!!! (I just got the generic "Robbie" or "Yiqing," which pale in comparison to past nicknames I've had like "The Sauce" or "Eggroll." Scotty 2 Hotty, Smellsa, Perishable, Cheese, Riles, Jackie Channing, Jo-Jo, Jo-Ro ( 2 different people), ConGao, Doris (not her real name), Petey, just to name a few. There were even alliance names (a la WWE Wrestling) with the Hydra and Scerry/Pott. I always love when nicknames are used.....it shows comfort with each other, shows people are willing to step outside their comfort zone, and almost (dare I say it) become more of a family.
PLUS, the vehicles we rode up in had names (3 giant SUV's that were different colors) named Munificent, Silver Fox, and Black Panther. Awesome. Inside joke reference: Whatever happens in the Black Panther stays in the Black Panther!!!!
7. No more school for a week. This was, after all, USC's spring break. Whatever the opposite of school is, Orcas Island was close to the opposite of it, a sort of Hogwarts school for all of us: an island for young people with magical qualities to it. Deer roamed the island freely, there were lakes, swamps, mountains, snow, beaches, all of the best geographic places for a vacation.
8. The Music.......so much good music, so many great artists, even for a self-professed ambivalent music fan like myself.
The whole experience was so good that I just have one thing to say after the Orcas awesomeness......
TAKE ME BACK!!!!!!!!!
Fantasize on,
Robert yan
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