I haven’t yet gone on a study abroad trip in my time at Longwood. I had planned to go on a study abroad trip to Greece for the Fall 2020, but because of the virus, my plans had to be changed. I am hoping that everything will become better soon so I can plan to go on a trip before it gets too late in my time here. ~ Ariel Birkholz, May 2020
Because of Covid-19, we were given the option to have a Brock Experience count as the Study Abroad credit. I chose to go to Yellowstone National Park during the Summer I 2022 semester. I originally planned to go to Chesapeake Bay, but after I got accepted into that program it got canceled. I am secretly glad it did because while it might have been closer and less expensive (what my parents wanted for the trip), I have always wanted to go to Yellowstone. My grandparents live in Montana so we have been close to Yellowstone many times, but we have never visited. I thought this would probably be my only time getting to go, so I was really excited when I found out I could go. This was also the first time I was traveling by myself, so it was going to be a new and hopefully not too scary experience. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, and I ended up sitting next to someone on the plan that I would later talk to during the entirety of the Yellowstone trip, and even afterwards.
Before the trip, we had pre-departure meetings immediately after finals week, from Sunday to Tuesday, and that kinda got us prepared for how the trip was going to be. I was a lot more assignment oriented than I was expecting, but I am not that surprised or angry given that it is a class we signed up for. I know a lot of people I talked to who were so caught up in all the assignments we had to do while at Yellowstone that they were not able to enjoy the trip there, and I refused for that to be me. Instead of looking at everything that I still had to do for class, I instead focused on how great of an opportunity this was and how much amazing stuff I was seeing and learning every day. I was not perfect, but I know my mindset allowed me to enjoy my time in ways others were not able to, and I think that says a lot about the position of school in people’s lives and how they go about responsibilities.
I really enjoyed every activity we did while at Yellowstone, especially the ones I rarely get to do at home. Like I said before, I try to keep a positive mindset, but it can be hard when I’m put into positions that go against my natural comfort zone. I very much do not like the cold in any way, and there were times where it was very cold and we had to do outdoor activities. One in particular that comes to mind is when we had to do wildlife watching, which consisted of leaving the motel at 5am and driving to the park with Wolf Trackers to watch and learn about various forms of wildlife. My normal day has me waking up around 5am anyways, so this was no problem for me, and I enjoy watching and learning about wildlife, so this sounded like it was going to be really fun. The day turned out to be miserable for me, though, as it was 20 degrees, with 30 degree winds, overcast, and had periods of rain and snow. There was also a moment where they took us out on a short hike and both of my feet were completely numb for the entirety of the hike. No matter what your mindset is, it is very hard to turn something you hate into a positive, yet I tried my best. After I got into the warmth after the day was done, I could truly appreciate all I saw and how close I actually got to some animals, and how I’ve now seen animals I’ve never before seen.
One of my favorite things about the trip was seeing all of the different scenery. It seems so peaceful there, a drastic difference to what I am used to. Even the stillness is different. There were some activites we did during the trip which allowed us to take in the stillness, to blend in with the enviornment and become one with it. I think I learned a lot in those moments of quiet. I have never really been an outdoors person. I will go out occasionally and usually have no qualms with it, but I hate bugs, insects, spiders, and the like, and this has definitely not changed since the trip. I did, however, gain a new appreciation for the environment itself and eveyrthing that share in its life. I understand that what I hate is necessary for the balance of life and how insignificant I am to everything around me, but how I still affected around me.
I also loved visting all the historic sights around Yellowstone like Old Faithful, Artist Point, and all the other places we visited. While we only stayed for a few minutes, when looking at each place and comparing them, you cans ee how these places may be so close and yet so vastly different. The world is not static, and while it is so slow moving that we may often not see the changes ourself, we need only to look at the land to see history all around us.
Yet, you can also see change can occur in the blink of an eye.
And how humans interact with and change the environment.
It is not only the history of the land that I learned more about, but also human history. One place we went to early on in our trip was Heart Mountain, which was a WWII Japanese American camp where people were placed after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Japanese Americans were brought and lived there for 3 years, cultivating the area from harsh lands to sustain themselves, making a life for themselves there because they did not know when they were going to be going home. Even then, after going home, they had to start over all over again because they lost all their possessions. We learned the history of some of the people that struggled in U.S. history in the places that we visited, both the Japanese Americans and the Indigenous People. History shows that we were not a forgiving or understanding people, but hopefully with how we are acknowledging and educating others on our mistakes, we will learn from then and become better than those than came before us.
Speaking of Indigenous People, we met and we able to talk to a really great man throughout most of our trip in Yellowstone named Scott Frazer. He taught us a lot about history of the land and relations between both the land and his people, and his people and settlers. I learned about the rituals conducted with one of their mothers water, and how acceptible the practice is for disabled people, how the landscape has formed and suffers due to the drought, and how to tell what animal it is based on the taste of the excrement. These are only the few among many things I learned and will take with me from our interactions. When we were saying goodbye to him, we conducted the water ritual he had shown us prior, but this time he lit a cigarette, spoke a prayer, and sang a song for all the birds to follow us on our journey. I have never really been a superstitious/religous person, but at that moment as he was praying and singing for us, a Bald Eagle flew overhead. This is the first time in my life I have ever seen a Bald Eagle, and at such a meaningful moment, I know this must have meant something, and that is a moment I will take with me forever.
One of the activities we had to do while on the trip that I didn’t like while there but can now better appreciate was the daily reflection journals. I brought my polaroid camera with me, so while I was out in the field I would take a picture of anything I found interest in, or thought was particularly strange or beautiful, and I would glue that into my reflection journal to talk about. I think that helped me to gather my thoughts that day, to think over everything I had done and really get everything I could out of the trip. I didn’t want this trip to be full of empty positives, like ‘today was such a great day’ or ‘I had such a blast with everything we did today’ so I really tried to be really to myself and to the work I did. While this may not be what was desired, I feel this allowed me to give my best and most true work, and allowed for what I believe to be some amazing reflections. It is my belief that you have to make the best out of what you have, and while that does not always mean you have to be positive abut everything, that does mean you have to acknowledge and be honest when it’s not. I think this should be more accepted than it is, and it is my hope that people will come to understand that negative does not always have to mean bad work.
All in all, this was a great trip and I am so happy that I chose to go. Looking back, if I had the chance to change my mind, I would chose this trip over again in a heart beat. Yes, even with the miserable days and reaching out of my comfort zones, and the endless amounts of work. This was an experience I will probably never get to have again; going on a trip with school peers, making new friends, learning in ways I otherwise wouldn’t be able to. I hope I am able to take this experience with me forever.
