My life is splattered with little euphoric moments in which some world truth, still secret to me, hits me upside the head and clarifies my reality. I run home and tell my roommates, who either suggest that I had the same realization (in different terms) last week or that, duh, everyone already knows that.
Nonetheless, passionately having convinced myself of their undeniable worth, I let these observations pervade all aspects of life. Before I know it, I have myself convinced that The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is really a movie about the importance of honesty (this week's hot topic), or that secretly eating lunch on the third floor of H&L is the best environment for speed-reading.
Having admitted this about my personality, I can now openly confess that spring break and our backpacking trip in Canyonland's National Park left me obsessed with imagination. Forget homework or gossip or whatever else people choose to obsess over, Canyonland's contrasting colors (bright blue sky against vibrant orange canyon walls), its magnitude, its heat in the sun, and coolness in the shade make me wonder where I'll ever find a place as imaginative as that to live (a real concern since there are only six weeks until graduation.)
I want a place where I can walk around, just as I did in Canyonlands, and people will legitimately wonder if a large orange giant is about to wake up from a nap, shake the mountain of sleep and dust off his back and lackadaisically walkoff dragging his feet and scratching a huge canyon into the earth. (Ah, Spring Break...you can let go of all that Bowdoin intellectualness.)
The trip started on Sunday, March 14 in the Salt Lake City airport (whose gourmet food options rank high among the lovers of vending machine French fries and sandwiches). A fair percentage of us, having never been west of the Mississippi River, would have been content to turn home after just the five-and-a-half hour drive to our basetown, Moab, Utah. The mountains, the barrenness, and the distances you can see without a New England forest to block your view are, in and of themselves, astounding. But then again, so is Canyonlands.
We spent five days and four nights in the park. The days were relaxed. Six miles of hiking is plenty when you also have to spend at least an hour a day walking back and forth to the select and rapidly diminishing water holes. Relaxed, however, is what Spring Break is about...so when Maya quadrupled the amount of milk in the cornbread, and Team A left its pizza dough out to rise in the sun (and be eaten by animals), it just didn't matter. In a place like Canyonlands, all the superficial worrying about relatively minute problems gets left at the door...and your imagination takes over.
No need to worry, however, because there are several great upcoming BOC trips and events-a quick clarifying breeze in the business of Bowdoin life. This Saturday there is a flatwater canoe trip on the Ellis River, near Rumford-perfect if you have never been canoeing before.. Sunday, in true adherence to my quest for imaginative adventures, there is a sunrise hike going out to Morse Mountain. It should be a gorgeous way to wake up in the morning. Then on Monday night, in attempts to actually relive Spring Break, Peter Schoene '05 and the officers will be holding the second annual Spring Break Slide Show/Officers Elections. It starts at 5:30 with appetizers included. (I'm secretly hoping that the pictures will inspire another, already obvious, world truth.) See you there!