I spent my summer outside, on my feet, working hard from the minute I woke up until the minute I laid down for bed. The transition back to Penn State for my senior year has been an exciting one, but left me feeling like maybe I was not achieving as much every day as I was used to from the summer. So with a relatively light course load this semester how am I going to push myself every day to stay occupied, healthy, and happy? The answer has been coming in 3 forms. Crew, working for Outdoor Adventures, and indoor rock climbing. Crew My senior season of rowing is off to a mixed start. Because of all the rain from Hurricane Florence and other storms, our lake is so flooded that not only can we not row, but we have had some emergency boat rescue sessions. It's only happened a few times in my college career, but sometimes Bald Eagle State Park's lake floods. It is a man made lake used for exactly this purpose, sometimes the Army Corps of Engineers opens the Foster Joseph Sayers dam and floods the lake during periods of high rains. I got the text Tuesday morning that we needed to go to the lake and move all of the boats, otherwise they would float away and we would not have a team. A second boat moving session on Wednesday completed the process, so the boats are safe, but now we are training indoors for the next week at least until the lake returns to its normal level. So we're on the ergs and running. I am the fastest that I've ever been and I think I owe that to all of my cross training this summer. Work I am in my second year of working for Penn State Campus Recreation's Outdoor Adventures. It used to be called Adventure Recreation, but Campus Rec did a rebranding hence the name change. I am leading caving and backpacking trips as well as facilitating groups on our high ropes course. The first trip I led so far this year was a caving trip to Tytoona Cave. The caving trip was a lot of fun, the rains had not started yet so the water levels in the cave were not too high and we were able to make it all the way to the back of the cave. Only one or two participants had ever been in a cave before, so it was fun to show them that fascinating (and wet!) environment. We spent about 2 hours total in the cave walking and crawling around, but also testing out some small squeezes and reading some philosophical stories (if you've never read Plato's Allegory of the Cave in a cave, I would highly recommend). On this super hot early September day it was a real treat to hang out in a 50 degree cave. The second trip so far that I was on was a backpacking trip that was supposed to go to Rothrock State Forest. Unfortunately, we had to cancel it the morning of because of sustained heavy rains and cold temperatures. This was a big decision that my co leader and I had to make. Our boss called us that morning laying out a few options and helping to discuss the problem, but ultimately he let us make the call which I hugely appreciated. We knew the group already from our pre-trip meeting, and since it was a beginner backpacking skills trip we felt that the participant outcomes we had imagined for the trip would not be achieved given the weather. We opted to cancel that weekend, but give the participants the option to switch their registration to a different backpacking trip later in September for no additional cost. I was happy with this decision, and as the weekend progressed I was very thankful to not be trying to teach beginners backpacking skills as the weather turned really miserable. Climbing The last way I've been occupying myself this semester has been rock climbing in Penn State's new indoor walls. We have a bouldering wall and a top rope wall, which has somewhere around 10 lanes for climbing. Both walls get re routed every few weeks so the routes are always changing and it never gets boring. I was super hyped coming off of the summer having climbed outside a little bit and I was really excited to hit this fall hard and improve my climbing skills. The first week of school I was climbing 5.7s and struggling up 5.8s. Now I climb 5.9s and struggle up 5.10s. If you are not familiar with climbing ratings, you can read about them quickly here. This fast improvement is the result of a lot of time spent in the gym as well as cross training from crew and weight lifting I believe. Starting this week I will be getting instruction from a few climbing gurus in the organization so that I can pass my instructor assessment in rock climbing for Outdoor Adventures. To do this I will be learning how to set and clean anchors, rappel, and manage a group at a climbing site. I am super stoked to be learning these skills and be able to use them with groups in this supportive environment, as I know they will help me a ton when I leave college. All in all, this may be my favorite semester of college so far. Not too much class, lots of crew, climbing, and outdoors time in general. My priorities are currently my fitness as well as internship search for this summer. My activities are all cross training for each other, which makes the combination of all of them at the same time super powerful. It is important to me to stay healthy and injury free so that I can achieve my potential in all of these realms. |
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