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Inspired and Committed after Leading the Way: Machu PIcchu 2011
It has been nine days since I landed in Washington, DC on my way home from Peru. As those nine days passed, I reverted back into my normal routine: lazily waking at 7 a.m. for work at my parents' animal hospital, stressing about my first year of college and So You Think You Can Dance on Wednesday nights. At work this past week, I was mopping in the back with the pets boarding in kennels or cages, and a coworker walked by with a cat that had just been dropped off for the weekend. As she passed me standing, mop in hand, the cat jingled, its collar adorned with multiple small silver bells.
I instantly thought back to Peru, day one of the Lares Trek. All of us had been excited at this point. We were finally beginning our "Peruvian adventure." It was warm and sunny, the weather mimicking our mood, and I was leading one of the blind students, Ashley, with a friend from school. Ashley was equipped with trekking poles, and I held a single silver bell to help lead her in the right general direction. Though I was ready to begin the hike, I was growing exceedingly nervous. I had led Ashley before, around our hotel room or restaurants, but never on a terrain like the trail of the Lares Trek. "Ankle-rollers" and "shin-busters" were everywhere, scattered about like a minefield.
Nevertheless, the first three miles went well, without any stumbles or noticeable missteps. I was so impressed with our group. We moved slowly but surely, the visually impaired students leading the way just as much as the sighted students were. After our break for lunch, we started up again. The trail had gotten steeper with a small stream and a drop to our right, the mountainside to our left. I walked ahead of Ashley, bell in hand, ringing away. Calling out to watch out for large rocks or stumps that threatened to trip us, I focused on my steps and what lay ahead. After a little while, I heard a muffled grunt and the scrape of a trekking pole on rocks. Stopping immediately and whipping my head around, I turned to see Ashley kneeling in mud on the side of the trail. I started to panic. I couldn't believe I had been so careless. I had wanted to prove to Ashley and myself that I could get her to the first campsite safely. But all I could think was that I had let her down. As I had hopped from rock to rock, just ringing the bell, Ashley had drifted to the left, slipped and fell. Thankfully, she had drifted to the mountainside. I hadn't even wanted to think what would have happened if she had favored the right. In the middle of mentally scolding myself and helping Ashley back up, I realized she wasn't yelling at me or grumbling about falling. Instead, she was giggling and congratulating herself for breaking in her hiking pants so early. I had certainly learned my lesson for the day. When I lead, I had to be more aware, and from then on, I wanted to embody Ashley's attitude. This attitude and mindset it one of the things that has stuck with me since the trip. Ashley wasn't upset when she slipped on the trail. She wasn't mad that I hadn't lead her away from the side, that she had fallen or that she had muddied her knees. She simply got up, straightened her poles and kept walking.
To remember Ashley's attitude that first day has made me think of how I overreact over the smallest annoyances: when I trip on uneven sidewalk, when our movies aren't in alphabetical order or when my brother slurps his cereal too loud. These are minuscule problems that certainly don't warrant getting angry or giving my brother the silent treatment for the day.
The last night during our closing ceremony, each of us had to think of a word that described the trip. My word at the time was inspiring, and the trip certainly did inspire me, but this memory made me think of another word. The first day, Ashley had been committed to the hike and to keeping our mindset as it had been right at the beginning. As a team, the 16 students were committed to leading the way and to fulfilling what it meant to be a leader, a teammate and a supporter. At the end of the trip, all of us committed to an individual promise and an individual wish.
We left Peru with powerful memories of alpaca for lunch, the snap game, the perfect Incan blocks, of camping in snow, colorful markets, commitments and of the trek. And all of this comes back with the jingle of a bell.
Submitted by Austen, a 2011 Leading the Way participant.
