By: Megha Lakha
When I asked senior Madeleine Morris to describe JOE 2022 in one word, she said: “Wet.” This probably explains why she recommends next year’s seniors pack “a hammock, a rain fly for your hammock, and a good rain jacket.” Her advice pretty much sums up how the trip went: “It rained a lot. A LOT.”
The Junior Outdoor Experience was created in 1994 by a past headmaster, Jim Hendrix. Rising seniors attend JOE for four days and three nights, backpacking in the Pisgah National Forest, in North Carolina.
JOE is always a memorable and transformative rite of passage, but this year’s Junior Outdoor Expedition was also infamous, just like others over the years where bad weather has played a role. And the weather indeed created a lot of turmoil.
“It seemed a lot worse because we’d be hiking and all of our stuff was getting wet and we would never be able to get dry,” says Margaret Hollingsworth. “But it also made it kind of fun because it gave us something to laugh about.”
In a survey, some seniors shared their challenges. Someone said a lowlight was “Getting denied our evacuation request two different times.” Another joked by saying “how unista worthy it was.”
But many people were able to find some bright spots in all the gray skies, like those who said they become closer with their group members and knew that they weren’t in it alone. Madison Baxter liked being in a group with a lot of people that she wasn’t t really friends with, because “it brings you out of your comfort zone and makes you talk to new people.” One of the main goals of JOE is to provide a strong sense of community and strengthen students’ relationships before entering their final year of high school.
In the survey, one student mentioned that a highlight was “getting to the top of the mountain and getting candy from Mr. Boswell.” Caroline Goodsell enjoyed that her “group was really close and we had so many jokes.”
With all that hiking, a big focus of the trip is food. Students spoke about macaroni and cheese (which was a common favorite), quesadillas, and peanut butter and jelly spread on tortillas. They also had a lot of other packaged snacks. The students weren’t allowed to bring their own food.
I sat down with Mr. Morris, one of the organizers of JOE. Acknowledging the challenges JOE participants faced, he said that he wants students to learn “that they can still be successful even if they’re uncomfortable and that they have a lot of control over how their experience goes.” He also hopes students can “have a realistic expectation and with that, a willingness to engage in the experience with your classmates.”
When I asked him what his favorite JOE memory was, he spoke about the culmination of JOE each year. “It’s every time we come out at the end of the trip and the students get to celebrate their accomplishment together,” he said. “I really like seeing the kids proud of what they did and they often surprise themselves.”
Overall, JOE has given students lifelong memories that they will certainly not forget, even if they may want to. When I asked Madeleine Morris what advice she could offer juniors who will go on JOE in 2023, she instead offered something else: “Good luck, we will pray for you.”
