To read part twelve of day three, click here.

I woke up that morning and shook Maggie awake. Jen had told us the night before that we were going to get up, wake everyone up without talking, and take a walk. We had to bring our journals and pens.

Once I was sure Maggie was awake, I pulled my hiking boots on and looked at the ground carefully to make sure there were no snakes before jumping off the platform. *shudders just thinking about it*

All around me the girls were waking each other up, shaking, poking, anything to get the other girls awake. I pulled out my fleece, since it was cold, got my journal and a pen and closed up my brain. Maggie came over and “asked” me if I had a pen.

It took me a minute to understand what she was saying with her hands, (it looked like she was doing a cool flourish of some sorts), but then I figured it out. I pulled my two extra pens out of my pack, gave one to Maggie and did a little wave/dance/jump up and down thing to get peoples attention, and “asked” if anyone needed a pen. Someone took it and I closed my brain up again.

We all went up to the main clearing where the guys, Jen, Katie, and Tullia were standing. We did this awkward “wave good morning to everyone” thing, mouthing good morning and asking how people slept. It was really awkward, and I was glad when we started walking. I was really glad I had worn my boots instead of my sports sandals – it was more support for my ankle, and I needed the support! It was really starting to hurt again. I wished I had my trekking pole. But it was back in camp, and I could not go back and get it.

We kept walking. We were on this narrow trail that curved around the mountain now, and it was making me a little nervous. Then the trail widened, and we were at a dead end. But what a dead end! There were these rocks that we could sit on, overlooking a valley. But the only way you could tell it was a valley was because of how far down the tree tops were. Because you could only see an occasional tree top because of the mist. The mist that was literally rolling over the mountains in front of us.

We sat down and Jen told us that we were going to write about where we wanted our crew to be in the end. What we wanted our team relationship to look like.

I thought about it for a minute. So far on my course I had just been thinking about what I could do to get through what was happening at that very moment. So it took quite a lot of thought to get what I wanted us to look like in the end.

“I want us to be a strong crew, a less foul crew. I don’t want to hear any more war stories, and I want to hear more about everyone personally. I want us to be a strong team, able to rely on each other. I want to form bonds that will last a lifetime, no matter what anyone else says. I pray that at the end of this course, we will all know each other well, and we all get along together. ” *This is actually what I wrote in my journal*

I finished writing and looked around. Everyone else was still writing, so I started just writing down my thoughts.

“We are sitting on a cliff literally watching the mist come rolling over the hills. We reached the summit yesterday, and words can’t describe how amazing that was. We are starting to get along better, and some of us now have nicknames. At least, Bobby and I do. For him, it is just a different way of pronouncing his name. Me? I get Dora! Because I am small, wear a purple shirt, and have a backpack as big as me!!”

I looked around and everyone had finished writing. I put my pen down as Jen pulled out the crew journal. She asked everyone to come up with something to put in our crew agreement. Everyone had to think of a different thing, and we all had to agree on it before we would put it in. Jen asked who had good handwriting, and no one spoke for a minute. Then Tullia said she could do it, since no one else would. Everyone looked at each other and grinned – none of us wanted to see our handwriting in the crew journal. And Tullia did do a nice job…

You know, it was nice to hear someone from the crew talk after not hearing anyone other then Jen all morning. I found myself looking forward to hearing everyone’s voices again. I did not mind not being able to talk myself – I wanted to sing. I grinned at the thought, knowing that Jen and Katie would count that as talking.

I thought all of this while I was waiting for someone else to go first. I did not want to be the first one, but I already had mine – something about trust. I did not know how I was going to phrase it, but I knew it had to be about trust.

I was the third person to say theirs. I don’t remember exactly how I phrased it, but it was something like “We need to trust each other”.

There was nothing. No one had anything to say about it like they had for the other suggestions. I started to wonder if it was not going to be put in the crew journal…

Click here to read the next part of Day Four.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here.*