Every quarter offers something new for each Community Adventure Program (CAP) student at New Vista High School in Boulder, and this past one was no different.  While traipsing through the snow on both overnights, the students learned a lot about themselves, each other, and how to be comfortable outdoors in the Colorado winter! Read what CAP student, Giselle, had to say about her experience.

“This overnight camping trip was one of the longest times I have spent in nature since I was 5. And in that time, I realized how much I missed out on all these years by not going into nature more often. When we live in civilization every day and are exposed to nothing but dull concrete and distracting technology, we begin to forget how amazing nature really is. We take it for granted, and are told by society – artificializing every piece of earth they can get their hands on – that it is something far away and really not that important. This camping trip re-established the deep connection with nature I used to have. It opened my eyes and made me realize that nature is not something far away, but instead it is something that is closer to me than anything else.

Probably my favorite moment during the second hike we did was when we were learning about building a snow shelter and me and a few other people were just lying in the snow. It was just really calming and kind of ironic that I was warmer lying in the snow than standing up. I’ve never really liked snow that much at all, so it was kind of funny that my favorite memory has to do with snow. I also thought the snow in itself was really cool, because it was more like sugar crystals than snow. I have never seen snow like that in my life. And it was really fun walking through it, especially when it was like 2 feet deep.

So overall, I would say this was a really great camping trip, and it really changed my perspective on my relationship with nature. It made me value and love nature more than I have in a really long time, and exposed me to a new reality. Since I have grown up in a culture of constant convenience and distraction where you can get basically anything you need all packaged and prepared across the street and don’t really ever have time to just sit and relax and enjoy life for what it really is, where you don’t have time for inconveniences, it was really nice to see what life would be like if you didn’t get everything handed to you. I also felt it helped build a strong sense of community in the class.”

A huge thank you goes out to Giselle for sharing her experiences.

Re-kindle your connection with nature by clicking here for a slideshow of their adventures.