Dear Boundless Families:
To contradict my last update where I claimed the river has a profound impact on students, may I suggest that Boundless is not about the river at all.
I had a phone chat today with a student’s dad. Mystified as to why his daughter has the Boundless bug, this being her third time here, he mused, “how many times can she get excited by the Ottawa River?”
Understanding what really binds his girl to Boundless can be elusive at the best of times.
I believe she gets excited by Boundless because she feels her timeless talents. We are a place where she can indulge her hard wiring to belong to a tribe. She is respected as an equal. She busts her belly laughing so hard.
As such, being on a river is merely incidental. This girl returns for much more than moving water.
While recently visiting on the Dumoine, I heard the boisterous Bold group a full 2 kms upstream. Banging their paddles in perfect rhythm on their gunwales, hollering and boasting of their immortality, their spirit literally swept the river with energy far beyond anything gravity and water could muster. They devoured any hurdle in their path. Bold is beautiful.
As to the Seniors, a band of self-coined “Macedonians”, they made “conquering Persia” feel like a cake walk, such was the quality of their cohesion and their strength of focus. The truth is that the Seniors are having a 13-day party disguised as school. Friends for life have been made in this tribe.
Re the Juniors, AKA the Samurai. Aaron described them as being the most effortless group he has ever encountered. Love at first site. This group was so utterly good to each other, it may be many years, if ever, that they will experience this level of camaraderie again. I am not embellishing here. I will bring the buckets to mop up the tears tomorrow morning when they leave each other.
The Freshmen – now dubbed the “Ants” for their capacity to carry far more than their body weight, and because their mantra is group-before-individual – have matured about a year in a week. The three girls in this cohort have been credited with elevating the panache of their ten boorish counterparts. They may be the strongest group of newbies in our history. They chant “moral support, moral support” to each other when encountering an obstacle. A pure Trevorism if there ever was one. The ants came marching with much hurrah on this wondrous journey.
So all this positivity may leave you thinking, “What crap is this guy feeding us?”
Well, the proof will be in the pudding tomorrow. Just you wait and see what kind of kid returns to you. They will bear the mark of their adventure in their eyes, their posture, their self-assuredness and in their remorse to say goodbye to each other.
It has been a privilege to work with your kids. Thanks for sending them here.
With appreciation,
