How my time with Outward Bound taught me to slow down and appreciate the environment around me
By Mae Heeringa
Looking through the trees on Burnt Island (Photo credit: Mae Heeringa)
After first collaborating together several years ago on a couple of service learning projects, Open World Learning Community (OWL), an independent secondary school based in St. Paul, Minnesota, and HIOBS once again partnered this past summer to bring a group of students to Maine for a 9-day service course on Burnt Island. A member of the national network of EL (Expeditionary Learning) schools, OWL serves Grades 6-12 and is focused on ensuring its students are inspired, challenged, prepared for their future beyond high school, and engaged in the world around them. The goal of the HIOBS course was to provide students with the opportunity to engage in meaningful work, encounter new people and places, and grow through the challenges associated with the work.
In the following piece, Mae Heeringa (she/her), now in her first year of college, reflects on these nine days spent on the island and the impact they had.
“The wilderness can often be full of surprises yet beautiful, and I saw a parallel between that and my future. “
This past May, during my solo night at the Hurricane Island Outward Bound base camp on Burnt Island in Maine, I set up my sleeping arrangements on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The blood moon was bright red, and its glow reflected across the water. The air felt wet with mist from the sea. As I stared at the waves crashing against the rocky shoreline, I thought back to the events that led me to that moment. Nearly a year earlier, I began fundraising and participating in service work at my high school to earn my way onto this trip. The time spent on Burnt Island was designed to bring together a group of 20 students to participate in volunteer work and earn service hours needed for graduation. When I received the news that I had been selected for the voyage, I was ecstatic.
Upon arriving at base camp, I was in awe of just how beautiful the landscape was. The coastline was filled with large, jagged stones and wet, mossy rocks. I could see neighboring islands and rock formations in the distance with seagulls flying overhead. That night I went to sleep excited for the days of work ahead. As the week went on, I participated in several service activities — including trail management and building tent platforms — and the work began to leave a deeper impression on me. I went into the trip expecting to primarily get service experience and bond with the Outward Bound staff, but I was now gaining a deep appreciation for the work I was doing and the environment that I was in.
I saw myself in the activities I participated in. Every nail I hit, every conversation I had with staff, and every piece of lumber I moved pushed me to realize the impact that my work was having. There was a tangible sense of progress with each activity and a feeling that I was helping the base camp become the best it could be. All these feelings of appreciation and connectedness reached their apex during my solo night.
That night, up on the cliffside underneath the blood moon, I reflected on the life that lie both behind and ahead of me. I was starting my first year of college in less than four months, and so much was uncertain. I didn’t know who I would be friends with, who I would eat meals with, or what classes I would be taking. As I watched the moon dance in the reflection of the waves below, I felt the environment somehow reassure me that though my future was uncertain, there was comfort in that. The wilderness can often be full of surprises yet beautiful, and I saw a parallel between that and my future.
My time on Burnt Island taught me to slow down and appreciate the environment around me — since that’s all I ultimately had. The island felt like a new community that I was now a part of. Just like I did during my time on the island, I would learn to make friends and find mentors in my new environment at college. Now, six months later, I can wholeheartedly say that my time with Hurricane Island Outward Bound was a fundamental experience for me. It granted me the time to step away from my day-to-day distractions, slow down, and reflect on my past as well as my upcoming future.
