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A BOLT perspective
by Shawn Manchester
(peter, shawn and jesse's the one sleeping)
With graduation approaching quickly, I have grown increasingly reflective with regards to my Brown experience. The single thing I inevitably return to each time I take this little mental trip through my four years at school is BOLT. My friends always ask me why, after already having led a trip, I continue to go back to BOLT. I continue to train new classes of leaders and work to make the program stronger. The answer is not simply that I have a wellspring of volunteering spirit but rather that the connections that I have made with others through BOLT are like none other in my life.
Now, I am not so silly as to think that us BOLTers just happen to be awesome, or even that we were always awesome. I think that BOLT has made us awesome. This is the key, at least for me, to understanding the worth of outdoor experience. Bonds created through the challenge that nature provides are strong. Conversations on the trail, or under the tarp, have a real quality to them that can be so lacking in day-to-day interactions. The act of fording a raging river, or of simply setting up camp well, requires a reliance on others. That reliance creates a palpable connection.
At the same time, however, I have come to realize through BOLT that bonds like this are not possible only in the outdoors. Bonds like this can be made all the time. I think that understanding how to foster, encourage, and make safe this reliance on others is the essence of leadership. As many friends as I have made in the woods, I have also made sitting through the many hours of leader training. Nature provides the requirement for leadership in an obvious way, but that context is actually always there, it’s just harder to see sometimes. BOLT has allowed me to realize the connection between the outdoors and my everyday experience, and for that I am grateful.
So am I going to be there for training again this time, even though I haven’t led a fall trip in two years? You know I am. Am I going to show up for steering committee meetings even though I have a million other things to do? Of course. Am I going to try and debrief that next fight over who should be doing the dishes in the house I live in with my friends? Well, I will certainly try.
Thanks, BOLT! |
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