By Mia Prausnitz-Weinbaum, OA Admissions Counselor and Semester 46 Alum
During my semester at OA, I was never the best at throwing the bear bag rope, or building a campfire, or navigating whitewater rapids. But you could count on me to be leader of the day and stay positive through an unrelenting spring downpour. I was an OA student in 2018, Semester 46. Now, I’m back on Hart Road as the OA Admissions Counselor. During my first few weeks back, I’ve been reflecting on the ways OA has been a throughline of my past seven years, and I’ve found that I can break down its impacts on my life by looking at each of the four cornerstones: Intellect, Craft, Community, and today’s focus, Environment.
Your first outdoor adventure at OA literally starts on day one. I got one cozy January night in the Sun Lodge’s East Side, before being thrust onto a frozen trail with a heavy pack and a group of strangers. I knew this was coming, and I had been the one to put myself in this situation, but these facts didn’t make me any less petrified. The first day was three miles, a distance that felt never-ending at the time, but today, for me, is a short jaunt in the woods. That fateful first night on trail was the coldest of my life. I shivered the night away, realizing too late that the layers and sleeping bag I brought were not as warm as I had expected. I later found out that the temperatures that night were so extreme, that the pipes in my house in Atlanta froze and burst while I froze in my sleeping bag. My Orientation Trek leader taught us about type-two fun, when an experience is miserable in the moment, but fun in hindsight.
Throughout the semester, we perfected bowlines and taut line hitches and friction knots. I tried and failed to make campfires (still not my strong suit). We experienced some more type-two fun and plenty of type-one fun. I felt my confidence rise with each outdoor program. I waited eagerly each time for my name to be called as the next Leader Of the Day.
At OA, we learned technical outdoor skills not only to have the skills but also to build my confidence. This ethos has carried through my post-OA life. At Brown University, I joined Brown Outdoor Leadership Training, where I relearned bowlines and taut line hitches and friction knots, this time with the built-in confidence that I could do it!
Importantly, I noticed a difference between my peers and me, not only in terms of technical knowledge, but also in the excitement and ability I had to apply and teach these skills to others. I stayed with BOLT as a mentor, and watched as new BOLT leaders built up this confidence that I had first laid the foundation for at OA. Throughout college and after graduation, I have continued to go on my own backpacking and camping trips, empowered by the knowledge that I can do it, because I’ve had those skills since I was 15. I know that without the outdoor programming at OA, I would have never had the confidence to be the hiker – or the person – I am now.
