Over the course of the past three weeks, my group of 22 students adventured throughout Australia and New Zealand. We started off snorkeling and SCUBA diving in Cairns, then hiked many miles in the Blue Mountains before leaving to explore Sydney. From there, we headed to a chilly and snowy New Zealand where we went sea kayaking, bungee jumping, and flew in a helicopter to the top of a glacier.
I think one of the biggest lessons I learned during this trip is that making friends isn’t always as complicated it seems. Going into this trip I was worried that I didn’t really know anyone else going. I didn’t want to end up homesick without people I felt close enough to talk to. As someone who is more on the quiet side, I tend to take longer to make friends. However, much to my surprise, all 22 of us fell into a comfortable friendship seamlessly. Before we even arrived at our first hotel, I felt like I could strike up a conversation with every person without the typical awkwardness that plagues me when attempting to get to know someone. One by one we each let out the goofiest parts of ourselves until we acted like childhood friends. Whether the conversations took place mid-hike, on a long bus ride, or at 3 in the morning giggling in our bunks, I was able to get to know everyone on a personal level. It’s amazing what spending 24 hours a day together for three weeks straight will do to people. Even now we still keep in contact and are planning to meet up for a baseball game in a couple of weeks. I’m still floored by how simple it was to make 21 new friends.
One of the themes of this trip started off as a bit of an inside joke. One of the guys was explaining what K.P. duty was. After being asked for the thirtieth time he burst out “K.P. – you clean the kitchen, you clean the pots, it’s simple!”. From then on, any time anyone explained just about anything, they would end with “it’s simple!”. At the end of our trip, we all went around the circle to explain how we felt we grew, and surprisingly, “it’s simple” took on a different meaning to many of us. As I’ve mentioned, for me, this was friendship.
I honestly can’t pinpoint one aspect of the trip that caused this shift for me, so I’ll just talk about some of my favorite parts. One amazing bonding moment happened right off the bat in Cairns when half of our group managed to beach ourselves on sharp coral while snorkeling. On the first day, we were taken to the Great Barrier Reef to snorkel and SCUBA dive. After arriving at the island, we took out a boat so we could snorkel back to shore. After multiple people threw up below deck, we all jumped in the water. We were given strict instructions to follow our guide to avoid shallow areas. Unfortunately, it’s really hard to tell who’s who when everyone is face down in the water. One unknown rebellious soul decided to go off the beaten path. Because this person was in front, we all just assumed it was the guide and followed them like lemmings off a cliff. Before I knew it, I was sucking in my stomach and praying that a rogue wave wouldn’t push me into a rock, but I continued on after seeing Sean, my trip leader, swim ahead of me. I swam until I could swim no longer and stood up to see my fellow snorkelers waving for help with bleeding cuts up and down their bodies from the coral. After being chastised by our guide, we found our way back to the beach to be patched up. Comparing our scrapes and bruises from this notorious day quickly brought us closer.
Another hilarious but odd bonding moment happened when driving from Sydney to the Blue Mountains in Australia. After jamming out to some early 2000’s classics while waiting in traffic, one of the girls had to go to the bathroom. She tried so hard to be courteous to the rest of us, but 30 minutes later her bladder could take no more. By this time there were a few others on the same boat, but we were still stuck on the freeway outside of the city. We begged and begged Anthony our driver to pull over, and finally, to a chorus of honks and shouts from other drivers he did. He turned around with a serious look in his eyes and said “It’s game time. Run, run, over the hill, do what you got to do, and get back here as soon as you can”, so sure enough with the precision and timing of a SWAT team, seven of us girls piled out of the van, ran through the Australian bush over a hill out of sight. We lined up right next to each other, popped a squat, and then sprinted back to the van. After the adrenaline had worn off we spent the next hour of driving laughing about what had just happened. I always find it funny how it’s the things that go wrong that bring people closer and leave lasting memories even more than the best things going right.
I have dozens of stories like this that have become the foundation to some amazing friendships. Previously, I had thought it took months or years to create the kinds of friendships that let you be wholly weird and goofy around each other. Both stories I told happened in the first 5 days. By the end of the trip, it felt like we’d all known each other for ages. It was just so…simple.
All of my life, I have had close friendships that have lasted years. One of my best friends today I knew when I was wearing diapers. Even my new friends in college I have now lived with for two years. I still believe that real friendships do take time and energy, but now I can see that all that time and energy is just the maintenance. Making new friends is incredibly easy and fulfilling. Especially when you get to meet people who have had entirely different life experiences from you. Because of this trip, I got to know 21 other unique human beings that I may have never met otherwise. I am so thankful I had the opportunity not just to check a few things off my bucket list, but to learn an amazing life lesson.
