Do you remember a moment when your life changed? When you had only known one way to think of yourself and then… wow! Here’s another?

I was born in Virginia, 72 years ago. That’s a while ago. I went to the local girls Episcopalian high school. I had never been away on my own. The mountains outside my door were soft tree covered: rolling Appalachian.

(girls reading, remember when? (2023))

And then, the summer of my junior year, I decided to go to Colorado Rocky Mountain School summer school. This school was run by the people that started Outward Bound, which was famous for teaching wilderness skills. I flew out west alone.

That summer, we were taught how to read map and compass, how to climb up unimaginably high mountains and navigate down glaciers (glaciers?) with an ice axe, how to cross deep streams, to hike for days and days. And then, as a finale, we were sent out in groups of 4 or 5, dropped off with 40 pound backpacks and a planned itinerary – start here, get picked up there – and left on our own.

To my surprise, I was put in charge of my group.

ME! I had never been in charge. At home it had been my older sister. My father. My mother. No. This time it was me.

I was told to make the crucial decisions so that we all succeeded. To get this group from here, find the trail, hike up to and over the high pass, down the glacier fields and to the pick up point in 3 days. To read the map – to know which trail to follow to take us up the mountain, and how to read our location across blank white snow when we slid down with our ice picks. To keep us all together – the impatient and the laggards.

I live to tell. We did it. I forget, was it 10 miles? Longer? Was it hard getting Laurie to keep moving? “It’s just around the corner. We’re almost there”. Was Barbara incensed that she wasn’t the leader? No doubt. Were we all very happy and proud to make it back. YES.

And was I ever the same again?

You know such a turning point in your life, right?