By Scott Silverstein, AT student from 2001–2003

When I think of Adventure Treks and its impact on my life, I think of a poem that I learned from former instructor Ben Mirkin: “Two Kinds of People” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. I’ve copied the poem at the end of this, but—spoiler alert!—the two kinds of people are lifters and leaners.

Adventure Treks taught me to be a lifter. In the backcountry, there’s really no option to be a leaner. You have to find water or you’ll be thirsty. You have to purify the water or you’ll get sick from Giardia. You have to make shelter or you won’t have protection from the elements. In a literal sense, you carry only what you need on your back—and nothing more. The complexities of life are reduced to a handful of well-defined tasks, and if you’re part of a group it quickly becomes obvious who is pulling their weight. Adventure Treks impresses this point gently through discussions of community-building and the self-reflection of plus delta (and, more celebratory, through hat presentations), so everybody learns to do their part, and the community almost always thrives.

In the real world, you can get away with being a leaner. You can work just hard enough not to get fired, you can leave chores to your housemates, you can fail to engage in political and social issues (I am so guilty of that last one)… all without noticing the consequences. But a big community suffers from leaners just like a small, 30-person AT community does—with every inaction it becomes dirtier, one-sided, and harder to live in.

What’s awe-inspiring is when you’ve spent time in the wilderness and seen the instant benefit of a community filled with lifters. There’s a big difference between doing just enough work to get to your campsite on time, and everyone pitching in so that you can get to your campsite early, set up tents and drop off gear, hike up a nearby peak, and have evening meeting with a Skittles game in front of a sunset. After experiencing the power of an AT community, it becomes much easier and more gratifying to build your community in real life.

AT gave me a lifelong love of the outdoors and a new set of survival skills. (Boy Scouts gave me some of the same thing, but the places I went with AT and the adventures we had were so much cooler.) I made powerful friendships, some of which I maintain to this day. I learned to value work-life balance, and I have managed to move to Vermont, get a flexible job (I’m a self-employed structural engineer), ski a ton, and choose a life partner whose values match mine. My life is immeasurably better thanks to AT… and I hope Adventure Treks is still around in about 12 years so they can have the same life-changing impact for my baby boy as they did for me!

“Two Kinds of People” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

There are two kinds of people on earth to-day;
Just two kinds of people, no more I say.

Not the sinner and saint, for it’s well understood
The good are half bad and the bad are half good.

Not the rich and the poor, for to rate a man’s wealth,
You must first know the state of his conscience and health.

Not the humble and proud, for in life’s little span,
Who puts on vain airs, is not counted a man.

Not the happy and sad, for the swift flying years
Bring each man his laughter end each man his tears.

No; the two kinds of people on earth I mean
Are the people who lift and the people who lean.

Wherever you go you will find the earth’s masses
Are always divided in just these two classes.

And oddly enough, you will find, too, I ween,
There’s only one lifter to twenty who lean.

In which class are you? Are you easing the load
Of overtaxed lifters who toil down the road?

Or are you a leaner who lets others bear
Your portion of labor and worry and care?

Former student Spencer Butts, who did five Adventure Treks trips and is now a freshman at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, shares how his AT experiences have helped shape his life so far. (Spencer will be joining Camp Pinnacle for his first year as a counselor this summer!)

What was your “aha” moment when you realized the impact Adventure Treks has had on your life?

Honestly, my “aha” moment was right after my first trip. The shy, anxious, and angry kid that I was disappeared on that trip. I finally broke out of my shell. I was a whole new person on that trip. When I got back home, I started to go back to my old ways… until it hit me. Why could I not be the same person that I was back on those trails at home? So I stopped caring about what other students thought of me in school and started focusing on the person I wanted to be.

How did AT give you the confidence to step outside your comfort zone?

No matter how confident you are with the outdoors, AT will most definitely push you out of your comfort zone. Whether it’s through all of the amazing activities or being thrown into an entirely new community, something will push you out of your comfort zone. The repeated experiences of meeting entirely new groups of people have certainly helped me with making friends in college. But I think the new experiences of trying all of the crazy cool activities have really made me love not being in my “comfort zone.” In these activities, you have a team supporting you, but you are mostly relying on yourself. This self-reliance has given me the confidence I need to be thrown into new situations. In a way, I am now comfortable with being uncomfortable.

How do you think your AT experience has helped you socially in college?

Adventure Treks has wiped away most of the social anxiety I previously felt with meeting new people. This made it really easy to, you guessed it, meet new people. But in all seriousness, I think Adventure Treks has allowed me to be confident with myself and as long as you have that confidence, you can get to know anybody.

Let’s talk about practical life skills for a minute. In what ways has AT helped you develop independence as a college student?

At Adventure Treks, we were given a lot of time to ourselves to think. Through this free time and support from instructors, I feel that I could look inward and see what I needed to do to improve not only as a community member at AT, but as a person, too. I have held on to this valuable life skill since then and have been applying it to my daily life twenty-four-seven. I have stopped worrying about what others think of me, but rather think of how I view myself. Adventure Treks showed me the importance of being “the best that I can be.” With this thinking, I would like to say I have become a generous and amicable person.

How did AT help you figure out who you are as you entered college?

Adventure Treks helped me figure out who I wanted to be after the first summer session I did. Now at college, I am finally who I want to be. I’m definitely not a rocket scientist, but Adventure Treks has given me the confidence and the drive to work to my own aspirations. For being a freshman in college, I am A-OK with that.

How do you describe your AT experience to your friends in college?

Whenever I talk to my friends about Adventure Treks, I usually start by saying what physical activity I did and where. The response is what you would think: “Why would you ever put yourself through that?… I mean wow, that’s so awesome!” But I always seem to fail to explain what AT really meant to me. Maybe it’s the detail that goes into explaining all of what goes on at Adventure Treks. Or maybe “you had to be there.” All I know is that it usually comes down to something like this: The summers I spent at Adventure Treks were the best summers of my life.

How has AT influenced your chosen major or career path?

Adventure Treks gave me the confidence and independence that I needed to finally take the leap to follow my dreams of being a music major. It took a while until I could say that confidently.

How often do you stay in touch with your Adventure Treks friends?

A lot of my friends actually had a reunion last summer, which sadly I could not attend. But I ended up seeing some friends back in my area, which was really nice. I am also looking forward to working with a bunch of Adventure Treks alumni this upcoming summer at Camp Pinnacle in North Carolina. The friends you make at AT can be for life. Just stay in contact and you never know how or where you might run into them.

What would be your advice to students who are new to AT and nervous about embarking on their first trip?

Try not to have any preconceived notions of what you think it will be like and let yourself be fully immersed in all that is AT. Try to make everyone on the trip feel at home, and you will too!

Former student Amara Cohen, now a student at the University of Chicago, shares how her Adventure Treks experiences have helped her thrive in her first year of college.

So, Amara, what was your “aha” moment when you realized the impact Adventure Treks has had on your life?

During the orientation week, I was at a barbecue with a group of kids from my hall that I had never spoken to before. We were sitting on the ground, eating our hamburgers together, engaging in a lively conversation about the various ways to eat corn, and it hit me that I would not have known how to connect with so many new people in a group setting if not for AT.

It’s no secret that AT offers challenges to its students—some challenges mandatory, others optional. The optional challenges were the main contributor to my newfound confidence. I was surrounded by amazing and supportive people, so I was willing to step up and face the challenges. No matter what happened, I knew my friends were there for me, so I knew I had nothing to fear.

How do you think your AT experience has helped you socially in college?

Through AT, I got to meet people with diverse backgrounds. I learned how to respect and engage with them, even if I disagreed with their views.

Let’s talk about practical life skills for a minute. In what ways has AT helped you develop independence as a college student?

I suppose the most obvious answer is that it forced me to see what life is like without my parents there to answer everything for me. I had to make my own choices, and I also had to suffer the consequences of those choices (always pack an extra pair of wool socks!).

How did AT help you figure out who you are as you entered college?

AT gave me the opportunity to think about who I was as a person and who I wanted to be. When you’re stuck in the wilderness with a group of 20 teenagers for a month, you see the best and the worst in people, as well as in yourself. I found the parts of me that I liked, and I focused on embodying those ideals as I went into college.

How do you describe your AT experience to your friends in college?

I tell them that I went to an adventure camp. I usually use the words “amazing” and “intense.” And then I often tell them the story of climbing Mt. Adams, because it makes me sound awesome.

How has AT influenced your chosen major or career path?

I’m still undecided about my major and career, but I learned about a wide variety of career paths during my trips. Sometimes my instructors would tell us amazing stories from various jobs they’ve had, and other times we would meet someone while hiking and get to hear about their life. These stories served as a reminder that there are so many careers that I had never heard of, so I don’t need to worry if I haven’t found the perfect job yet.

How often do you stay in touch with your Adventure Treks friends?

In general, I’m not very good at staying in contact with people. It’s therefore rather impressive that I’ve managed to stay in touch with my Adventure Treks friends. We actually meet about twice a year to catch up. It’s so nice having someone to reminisce with about all the adventures we went on.