July 6, 2019


On Saturday, we embarked on the first of our many car rides to come throughout this two-week journey. The first few hours before our departure were filled with lots of awkward yet exciting introductions. We boarded the van and instantly started to talk about our expectancies for this trip. While waiting for the arrival of our co-director, the van that I was in had a good mixture of people in it. People that I’ve known for a good while, people I’ve met at Heritage (HU), and new people that I had never had the opportunity to meet during my time at HU. During our wait we were able to learn that some of us share the same backgrounds while others have backgrounds we have never imagined. So, of course we started to speak about our upbringings, that lead to us having funny conversations about growing up in Latinx households. We also spoke about the anxiety of sleeping in small tents for more than three days and how some of us have never camped out in their entire lives. That someone is me. I clearly expressed my “newness” to this type of lifestyle, and they all sent out some form of sympathy my way.
Once our co-director arrived, and we got settled in, our road trip began. We drove toward Harrah and before I knew it we passed what I knew as home, and entered into this new area of land that I hadn’t yet ventured into. We continued to drive past areas that I was in awe in. After a little bit of the rocky road, I plugged my headphones in and crashed into a semi-deep thirty-minute nap.
We arrived on the campsite at around four in the evening on Saturday night. It was a beautiful site to look at. The trees were tall and majestic. The sound was even more peaceful, it was as if I threw on a gallon of essential oils on my head because all of a sudden, the outside world didn’t matter- well having no service helped too. We set out to set up camp for us and that was an adventure in itself. I have never put up a tent, so I was for sure feeling like I was going to epically fail at this task but thankful Xavier and Briseida were able to help set it up. After setting up we walked down to the river where we were presented with a beautiful eye sight. The walk down had this beautiful entryway that acted as an entrance to the river. When we got to the river the water was so clear and refreshing to the skin. After our small adventure to the river, we walked back up to the common area and started helping with dinner. Before dinner was eaten, we were fortunate enough to hear a story and blessing by William Don Teakheal, a Yakama Nation Elder. As the night began to unwind, we were able to sit around the campfire and share stories of our past and get to know one another.
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Life Lesson:
Remember to still take care of Mother Earth, no matter what ethnicity, culture, profession, gender, or opinions you may have. Mother Earth gives us so much to take her for granted. Also, everything has a purpose, from the rocks, to the flowers, to the trees, and more importantly you do.

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