Dear Boundless Families:
I approached the LOST BOYS two days ago at their Lac Robinson Campsite on the Dumoine River by canoe.
Six are on the beach and see me coming, and they point at me and laugh – some quip at my expense – but I can’t hear because I am aging and parts of my body fall off every morning.
Feeling chirped, I retort, “I will take you beeeatches on all at once or one at a time.”
This worked. They chuckle, run out in the water to grab my boat, give me high fives, and I am in. Thats about all it took.
They are tending a sauna fire. A bunch are swatting pebbles with branches to wile away the time. Yes, time. Often at a premium on a river trip, these Lost Boys were found with a surplus of this commodity. Why? Because they learned to work together like champions.
One comes to me and says, “you know, the weather sucked the whole trip”. And he’s right, they had about 10 hours of sun in 6 days. “How did you guys deal?”
“Ahh, it didn’t matter”
And so goes the credo for one of the highest functioning young groups in our history. The Lost Boys have this swagger. And idiosyncrasies abound. Don’t be surprised if your son come home speaking a weird mix of German dialect.
All 3 outdoor groups returned safely to port drenched, bruised and inflated with pride.
The Wild Cards figured it out big time. The whining and self-indulgences ebbed over the course of the journey, and these kids learned something profound. I never do a shout out to a specific kid in these updates, but there is this gal named Sonja who will one day become Prime Minster or Mother Theresa. Certain kids just stepped up and supported the rest, led by Sonja. And so this cacophony of kindness overwhelmed egocentricity, and the Wild Cards returned as heroes.
BOLD remained beautiful throughout. On a whim, the kids chose to finish the river journey one day early, breaking a record for a Boundless river descent. Nothing got in their way from the moment they arrived. They return home tomorrow as warriors.
And finally there is English, who saw these bookworms battle their own urges to take it easy. Could they produce work to be proud of? The challenge, in part, was something every student faces when deadlines approach (especially essays). But the bigger hurdle was simply the fact that they loved hanging out together so much. They were each other’s distractions. I can live with this because some of the gaming addicts transferred their addiction to wanting to be with flesh and blood. This is exactly what a few of these kids needed more than the english credit itself.
Tonight all four groups will celebrate their triumphs and achievements by breaking bread and feasting on beast. And tomorrow morning they will be at the height of ambivalence. So eager to get home to comforts, yet distressed at having to say goodbye to people they have grown to love.
Ditto with the Boundless team, who fell head over heels with your progeny.
Thanks for sending them to us.
Get ready for stories tomorrow! Wish I was a fly on the wall but I have to remain up here.
Wishing all of you a wonderful year ahead and hoping to see many of your teens return.
Warmly,
Steven
