Wednesday morning I waved farewell to two full busses of medical/dental school colleagues as they began their journey to the wilderness of northern New Hampshire, to hike over 20 mountain miles and indulge in the isolation of true wilderness. The crew is still out there today, scheduled to return home tomorrow. As the at-home ‘emergency contact’, I’ve been content to hear nothing from these backpackers, though I can’t help but wonder what adventures and injuries they’re encountering.
For the past few months, I’ve been working with four classmates to plan this large scale backpacking trip, called FEAT (First-year Educational Adventure Trip). It is one of two pre-orientation programs that incoming Harvard Medical/Dental students can choose to participate in, and I had the pleasure of going on the trip myself at this time last year. Generally, you hike through the White Mountains in a group of 10, including 1-2 incoming 2nd year students as ‘leaders’, and sleep on tarps together for three nights of completely hearty rustic goodness.
Although we had more students on the planning team this year, there was an unpredictable surge in applications, and we ended up with a nearly 50% increase in hikers. Needless to say, it became a very large summer “job” (sans pay). Usually the pay-off of planning is that you go on the trip for free, but I knew from the outset that I would need to be Boston-bound this week. Tuesday night was the ‘kick-off’, where groups got to meet and pack together before Wednesday morning’s departure. It was quite chaotic, but a good lesson in communication and logistics, and a great chance to meet the fresh faces of the entering class.
It’s now Friday morning and I feel like I’ve recovered from the sleep debt incurred by pulling this thing off early in the week, but I’m sure it will be awhile before the participants can say the same about the grueling exhaustion they’ll come home with tomorrow. Now, off to the wild downtown Boston for my last day in the office (more on that later)!
-
greenerie posted this
