Odyssey is a program run by Davidson Outdoors that gives incoming students the opportunity to experience living in the outdoors and meet their classmates before arriving on campus for orientation. Students canoe, rock climb, hike, and perform service while learning to live in new environments and work together. Every session ends by reviewing the six tenants of the program: take care of yourself, take care of others, robust participation, choose your attitude, open up, and have fun. Trip leaders reveal to their participants the mind blowing-concept that these tenants not only apply to their Odyssey experience but to real life as well. Many participants, and trip leaders, however, fail to take the time to allow these words to develop to their full meaning.
Davidson Outdoors likes to say that Odyssey is the utopia that Davidson strives to be, but why can’t the inclusive, supportive community created in the wilderness of North Carolina and Tennessee exist in “the real world” too? Odyssey is a week where students can be whomever they wish. They can completely reinvent themselves, conquer challenging and painful experiences together, and feel comfortable enough to make mistakes. One bad climb, one flip on a rapid, one moment of poor attitude does not have to define a participant, or a trip leader for that matter. I think many participants place this experience in a box. Odyssey and Davidson become separate just as “real life” and the Davidson bubble are treated as distinct entities. Both participating in and leading Odyssey have been some of the most formative experiences in my time at Davidson and I find it impossible, and pointless, to separate who I am in the backcountry and who I am at school. I want to take care of my peers and myself. I want to contribute to the Davidson community and be positive. I want to open myself up to new people and experiences and above all I want to enjoy my four years at one of the best colleges in the nation.
Whether everyone does Odyssey or not, it’s important to think about why we feel the need to box certain values off to only exist in particular places and situations. The honor code does not stop being important at graduation, the Davidson community does not cease to exist as soon as you move off campus, and the values and experiences of Odyssey do not dissolve at noon when you walk out of Davidson Outdoors after spending a week with nine people who were total strangers just a few days ago. Everyone matters during Odyssey, whether because they’re carrying the poop kit or because they’re belaying you, so look up from your cell phone and say hello. There’s no choice but to actually talk to people around you when you’re camping miles from anywhere, so stop complaining about homework and ask people about themselves. Most importantly, I have laughed harder than I thought possible on Odyssey and had fun in the most unexpected ways, so stop stressing about where you’ll be in ten years and how much money you’ll make at your first job out of college and do something goofy, have fun, and laugh. It can’t actually be possible than none of us have been living in the real world for the past two decades – something of what we have experienced, whether on Odyssey, at Davidson, or back at home must be real.