On one of the first days of my internship, we all sat down and wrote our goals for the summer — my main goal being to get outside of my comfort zone. At the end of all this, I can truly say that I blew that goal out of the water, and was rewarded handsomely in memories and experiences because of it.
From living in a tent and cliff jumping to swimming down rapids and some truly odd social interactions, the deviation from my normal way of life was truly so much fun as I embraced the NFCT way of life. I don’t foresee myself building any more box privies or stone staircases in the near future, nor do I anticipate having to navigate without my phone in my day-to-day urban life, but I do believe that the skills I gained, both tangible and intangible, will help me throughout the rest of my life — especially learning how to actually cook! This has truly been an incredible summer with the NFCT.
All of the incredible places and projects I went to and worked on wouldn’t have been anywhere near as cool and meaningful without the people I shared the experiences with. Every volunteer was wonderful to work with, and I loved getting to know more people and hear more about everyone’s experiences. It was great being with a group of people who all shared a love of the outdoors. And of course, I would be remiss not to mention the people I had the pleasure of working with throughout the summer. I won’t forget about Alex’s fearlessness jumping off of any elevated surface into a body of water, or Liam’s ability to seemingly defy all laws of physics to make everything fit in the back of the truck week after week, or Will’s laugh every morning when he woke me up with the same awful song. Nor will I forget Karrie’s generosity or Noah’s ability to fit three day’s worth of activities into a single day. There’s so many other people that I could mention by name who made this experience even more worthwhile and enjoyable.
Although this summer was not devoid of rainy work days, poison ivy and equipment mishaps, I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. Thank you to everyone who helped make this an incredible internship experience!
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