Final Reflection
I feel extremely lucky to have experienced the EDGE program in the way that I did. I went to SUU starting in 2006 and after my LDS mission. I stopped attending in 2010. I now live in Anchorage Alaska and have been up here for a few years. When I returned to SUU I learned about the EDGE project. Due to the fact I had been away from the university I had no preconceived notions, no negative or positive perspectives on the project itself, because of this fact I was able to let the courses and the project influence. I was also able to complete the assignment in my own way.
I struggled finding a project. Not because there weren’t any options, but because potently everything that I do in my profession could have qualified. Due to this fact I realized I wanted something special something that I was motivated about, and could put 100% into. When I heard about the expedition to summit Denali, I knew I had found my perfect project. There was an outdoor element that I wanted, and the leadership aspect that drew my immediate attention. The prep time alone for the trip would well cover the time required, and I was dedicated to the success of the trip. I knew it would be difficult, but if I pulled it off, it could be amazing.
My profession is very unique in the fact that we are perpetually busy. It takes a lot of practice and focus to accomplish everything that you need to in a day. The task of scheduling and blocking off days for myself and my team for the preparation of our trip was the first step in my process. We planned an entire week-long trip with two days of prep work just as a shake down for the expedition. The Eklutna traverse went well and our team worked well together. We continued to take classes, do walkthroughs, and work on our gear over the next month. Our team changed every week or so with people coming off or onto the expedition,but we finally narrowed it down to six. Five from the 212 RQS and a brother from our Las Vegas unit. We had a week of prep right before the trip and we used every second of it. The trip itself was another story once on the mountain you can focus, there are no distractions and no one asking you to divert time to some other task. While climbing everything that you do is to help the team survive and succeed. Honestly, once we got on that mountain I counted the whole project a success, everything else was just bonus.
We set out to reach high camp, (it sits about 17,200’) that was the goal on paper and the goal for all of our training needs. My personal goal, having been on the mountain before and getting turned around short of even high camp, was to get to the top. One of our team members got sick and we had to take him down the mountain and he returned home. It was an easy decision to make, I trusted him to know himself and his capabilities and he made the right call. Another teammate decided to stay at high camp, another good decision, he does not sleep well at altitude and he was smoked. Two more of them turned around at about 18,500’ or so. The altitude was really affecting one of them and the other agreed to escort him back down. My climbing partner and I pushed on and with some luck that the weather held for us and with a whole lot of grit, we made the summit! (20,310’)
The whole experience helped me be a more patient person. I leaned on my organizational skills to get us there, and on the experience and skills of my teammates to get us home. It always amazes me that these men will make the right decisions even if they are the hard ones. I learned again, to trust my team not only with my life but with the ability to make decisions that will positively affect their own lives.
Life is all about engaged purposeful learning. Whether people know it or not it happens all around you. Our ability to see opportunities in our path that can make us better, plan how to use them to benefit us the most, and remember those lessons learned could be the difference in our achieving our goals or not. SUU has forced us (for lack of a better word) to experience this first hand. Giving us a template to use for the rest of our lives.
It is my hope that those individuals that are soon graduating can look back on this program and see the benefits. I have been reflecting on my education and my career and have been seeing a pattern. Most classes are designed to help us gain the experience we need to succeed. We have learned, sometimes painfully, how to learn. The EDGE program opens the world to us. It helps us see that we can learn and grow in everything we do and even more so doing the things we enjoy. This class has reiterated to me the importance of goals and taking advantage of all the learning opportunities life has to offer.