Time sure does fly when...you're super busy!

As promised, blogs are infrequent at most. As the school year came to a close I found that there was less and less time to spend doing things other than school work, group projects, and school work. So blogs, work-outs, and general free time fell by the wayside.

However, during this past month (and by that, I mean the past month and a half. Time is going by too dang fast!) I did manage to fit in an eight day backpacking expedition in the Big South Fork of Tennessee. Ok, so I didn’t “manage to fit it in” it was the culminating experience for my Principles of Field Leadership class. Graduate school has come a long way from the days of sitting in classrooms listening to some professor go on and on about something that is probably important…or maybe my program is just plain old awesome! Either way, I spent eight amazing days nestled in the backcountry of Tennessee. And just to set things right, for all of you out there thinking Tennessee, or the Southeast in general, doesn’t have anything to offer – you are wrong. The Southeast is pretty neat in terms of its access to great outdoor activities locations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Again, school work buried me under a mountain of reflection papers, final teaching topics, and frantic study sessions all of which were alleviated with a beer and some pecan pie when everything was said and done.  And then I realized…I’m halfway done with my graduate degree!

 

But, it doesn’t stop there. I rolled right into my Wilderness First Responder course. This class is always fun, mostly because we get to play dress up with fake blood and bruises. For nine days (or maybe eight?) we play the role of rescuer, helping our victims with a variety of problems ranging from trauma – think broken bones, cracked skulls, or dislocations, to medical issues – heart attacks, respiratory issues, or diabetes. Along the way we learn to build splints for legs, arms, ribcages, and even the collar bone using only the things we might carry in the backcountry, we learn how to strap people to a backboard for the long haul out of the field, and we learn that doing CPR at the rate of 100 compressions per minute can be done to many songs including “The Wheels on the Bus” “Dust in the Wind” and my personal favorite “Staying Alive”.

 

Now that I am fully immersed in my summer vacation I still find myself busy with school work – not so much now, but I know it is coming – and actual work. So, that being said I could promise more blogs during these long hot, humid months. But I’m not going to; mostly because I am doing a really good job at fulfilling my first promise to you – infrequent blogs.