It seemed like yesterday when my parents put me on a plane and shipped me to
Minnesota, for my highly protested Outward Bound experience. Leading up to the
fourteenth summer of my life, I guess you could say my actions were a little out of place,
and misunderstood by my parents. I was in my own world of bewilderment, which
always pointed me down the wrong path. The next thing I knew I was setting foot in the
heart of Minnesota's forest. My journey would be 27 days in the woods with two guides
and 6 strangers in the same predicament as myself. So off we went in five canoes
containing four food packs and 5 ponchos which all weighed around 100 pounds to carry
on our backs. After the first excruciating week everyone started to come around. We all
became well acquainted with each other and started to bond kind of like family. Soon we
were canoeing through 6 lakes a day and portaging over 5 miles with our gear. I don't
know if it was the basics of nature, the confinement from society, or maybe just the
freshest air anyone could ever breathe. But my mind became clear and I took on the role
as leader of our rebel force. I had always been a follower, which got me into most of my
trouble, but now for the first time I could think for myself. It was the last stretch of our
journey and the guides were nowhere to be seen. We had to navigate the last nine days
through the woods back to base, by ourselves. If a decision was to be made my
comrades would ask for my opinion first, if we got lost I would find our way. They
looked up to me for my support, which created a power within my self that I had never
experienced before. The day we would be returning to base I woke up just before
sunrise. As I stumbled out of my tent I saw Dan sitting on a rock, waiting for the sun to
creep over the trees. Dan was really the person I bec
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