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shared by Dan Creely,Jr. (This course summary paper was submitted at the conclusion of a one and a half day Rock Climbing course taught at North Central College, in Naperville, Illinois. Can adventure/challenge programs have a lasting impact on our students? Read on.) My family decided to leave Puerto Rico shortly after my sister's birth in 1979. I was four and mom was twenty-three. Mom was a pale faced woman with beautiful black hair who because of her appearance was perceived to be older. This was probably because in 1974, at the age of eighteen, she discovered she was pregnant with me. This meant having to put her dreams of becoming a doctor on hold. Later that year she declined her scholarship to the university of Puerto Rico and decided to marry my dad. Their marriage id not last very long. Prior to leaving Puerto Rico Mom decided to divorce my dad and as a result he did make the trip to Chicago with us. I wondered what the move to Chicago would entail. Fortunately for us, we had relatives in the barrio (neighborhood) where we would move. It was comforting to know that there were others who moved to the sounds of salsa and who delighted in the familiar smells of rice and beans. It hailed the day we arrived in Chicago and we joked that the day was "hailing" our arrival. I was in America. A land where one's dreams can come true. The brown, brick buildings clenched tight all winter against the cold sooty sky and simmered all summer in the stench of rotting garbage. It was a place without silence or darkness. We huddled by a lake full of dying fish whose corpses floated against the slime covered rocks on the shoreline. America...the land of the free and the home of the brave. This land of the free and the home of the brave brought nothing but misery to my family. We spent seven years on public aid. We survived on four hundred and sixty dollars a month, which included food stamps. Life was tough, however we always had food on the table. Thank God! My barrio was drug infested and run by the Disciples, a Puerto Rican street gang that still exists today. My playground was where they held their weekly meetings. Let's just say that Humboldt Park was not the ideal place to raise kids. Fortunately, my sister and I kept our faces in the books and used sports as a tool against the negativity of living in the neighborhood. I believed that if I could survive living in Humboldt Park then I could survive just about anything. This mentality allowed me, as well as my sister, to attend two great colleges. Well for me it was more like three: Western Illinois University, Arizona State, and North Central. The past two years at North Central have been quite interesting. I found out that my childhood left me with wounds that still needed to be healed. I have had a hard time trusting anyone and felt uneasy whenever I was surrounded by people of a higher economic class. I felt as though I did not measure up to them. When I first moved to North Central I was terrified to walk down the street because Naperville is a wealthy Chicago suburb. As strange as it may seem, my wounds were ripped wide open in my rock climbing class. My guidance counselor in formed me I needed to fulfill a Physical Education elective. I selected the rock climbing class. I thought it would be like high school where you just had to show up, participate, and receive an "A" for the course. What a surprise! This course would prove to be totally different. The first day of rock climbing we were scheduled to meet in a classroom. When I walked into this classroom the desks had been prearranged in a circle. There were about ten individuals already seated. I very quickly tool my seat and I soon started to feel very, very uncomfortable as everybody started to silently look at each other. Immediately my childhood experiences exploded to the surface and I felt inferior to the rest of the students in class. My classmates appeared to be from affluent families and of course I wasn't. At that moment I wanted the earth to swallow me up. It was time for class to begin and one of the instructor's objectives was for us to get to "know" one another. He facilitated some group activities for us to perform for the first ninety minutes. Finally he asked us to pair up with someone we did not know and asked us to participate if we "chose to." One activity we performed near the end of the first hour was to develop trust. We were instructed to guide our partner with his/her eyes closed until we tapped them on their head. When they were tapped on the head they were to open and close their eyes. This was intended to simulate a camera taking snapshots. This simple exercise was extremely difficult for me because of my trust issues. During the time I was being guided, I constantly opened my eyes to see if I was going to bump into something. Finally by the third snapshot I started to feel comfortable and developed some trust for my partner who was safely guiding me. Another activity involved using Chiji cards. Chiji cards are picture cards that helped us discuss a significant moment in our life. Everyone took turns sharing their story. I heard stories of people being from abusive homes and stories of people who felt inferior to others. After this exercise was completed I found out that everyone, rich or poor, has insecurities and everyone seems to have overcome obstacles in their lives. This rock climbing class played a big role in my life. It brought to
the surface issues I struggled with in the past, issues such as trust and
feelings of inferiority. These issues reappeared right in front of my eyes,
through some simple group activities. I feel like I conquered my fears.
I now feel comfortable allowing someone to guide me when my eyes are closed.
When I am feeling inferior I know I have the will to turn that insecurity
into a positive feeling. This is the first time I felt comfortable around
people of a higher economic class. I discovered, inside, they are really
just like me. This class certainly blew my mind. Oh, yeah. The rock climbing
part of the class was totally awesome.
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