2010 in Review

January 2010- Ringing in the new year with my best friends by my side. Looking forward to 2010 and all the adventures it brings.

February 2010- French Exchange students from Marseille, France arrive in the United States. Marianne quickly became another member of our family and we miss her dearly!
March 2010- Just 5 weeks after the French Exchange students came to Chicago, we were packed up and ready to fly off to France. Because of heavy snow (in March?!?!) our flight was delayed for 3 hours and we all were itching to leave. We said au revoir to our parents and flew off on a whirlwind adventure.

April 2010- A picture with a baguette...when in France...do as the French do! The baguettes were cheap and were plentiful. My first international trip included being pick pocketed, climbing the Eiffel Tower, shopping in the markets, eating crepes and much more.

May 2010- Working on a film for LTTV (Lyons Township Television), the television station at my high school. The film was a murder mystery with a twist. LTTV is my home away from home and I probably spend more time at school than I do at home.
June 2010- My younger brother, Josh, graduated from 8th grade and is now in the same high school as me (scary). We have 2 campuses at my school so I never see him. My little brothers are growing up too fast!
July 2010- This picture was taken at base camp of our backpacking trip to the Stanley Hot Springs in western Idaho. To read more about my trip with the Student Conservation Association please visit the post.
August 2010- After returning from my trip to Idaho and working as a nanny the rest of the summer a 4 day mini vacation to a friend's lake house was a must. 4 days filled with tubing, water skiing, swimming, kayaking, boating and soaking up some rays.
September 2010- Some of my best friends and I went to a Rascal Flatts concert the weekend after school started and had a blast. They are my favorite band and everyone enjoyed themselves.
October 2010- After being accepted to SCAD and having my heart set on attending my dad and I took a trip down to Savannah, Georgia to check it out. I fell in love with SCAD and the city that surrounds it. The opportunities available to the students are unprecedented and all the professors have worked professionally in the fields they are teaching. I can not wait to begin classes in fall 2011
November 2010- Yet another film in production in cooperation with LTTV. This was the first film that I produced, directed, and edited all by myself. The finished product ended up being over 8 minutes but because of the competition I was entering I had to cut it in half. To see Date with Cthulhu please visit my vimeo.

December 2010- With the year coming to a close I realize that this was a year of firsts. First time out of the United States, first time backpacking, first college visit, first college acceptance, and some of the first times I've truly felt alive.

"As a big 2010 came to its conclusion I felt purposeful and satisfied, but also on the verge of overwhelm. 2011 and 2012 will be even bigger - how can I maintain momentum without forgetting to live in the moment? This is the challenge and the opportunity of the year: to create sustainable growth in all areas while retaining a core sense of identity." -Chris Guillebeau

What am I looking forward to in 2011?

A possible volunteer trip to Haiti, graduating high school, spending the summer in Ghana, making documentaries, moving out, starting college, traveling to the ends of the world, pursuing my passions, and living every moment to it's fullest.

Meilleurs Vœux

Nejlepší přání

最良好的祝愿

Onnentoivotukset

Auguri

Parimate soovidega

ด้วยค

Best Wishes,

Rebecca Kuntz

Moments of Zen

12.23.10

[Zen]- To seek enlightenment by meditation in which there is no consciousness of self.

Hmm...meditation....yeah I can barely sit still for 5 minutes without having to get up and run a lap around the room. Even though I have never meditated, I have tried. Whenever I would sit and try to meditate I could never quiet my mind enough to sit and just feel my chest rise and fall. My mind races at a thousand times a minute and constantly jumps from one idea to the next, sometimes not even having time to complete one thought before moving to the next. Even though I never have meditated I can say I have felt zen. To me zen should be defined as follows:

[Zen]- A moment when one is at peace, when nothing else matters but being in that moment and feeling as though they are truly living.

It might be a bit wordy but I believe it gets my true thought across. Zen doesn't have to be sitting still, trying every possible way to make your mind shut up and just be. Zen can be found in a moment when your mind can't stay on one single idea for more than a second. The point is that zen depends on the person. Zen to one might be sitting in a yoga studio listening to a soothing voice try to talk all of the thoughts from your mind, but zen to another person might be found riding an almost broken down bus across the Sahara. I know I am in a moment of zen when I want to be nowhere else but in that moment, if someone were to offer me a million dollars in that moment I would refuse because nothing else matters.

As you know this spring I took my first trip abroad through the French Exchange at my school. I can't even begin to describe all the moments of complete zen I had while visiting the beautiful towns along the Mediterranean coast as well as the chic capital of Paris. My favorite moment of zen had to be when I was flying back home to Chicago from Paris. We had just reached the point when it was safe to remove our seat belts so of course there was a massive rush to the two bathrooms available to economy flyers. People were walking up and down isles, languages I could not understand were being spoken like buzzing bees, and flight attendants were pushing carts around with 30 different drinks, all of which I wanted to try. And with all this chaos circling around me, I was at peace. I knew that I was flying home to family that loves me, but I also knew I was speeding miles away from a second family. I was being torn in two separate directions. I was looking forward to going home and sharing millions of stories with friends and family, but every minute that passed a piece of my heart was being ripped from the country that captured it during the past two weeks. In a child's game of tug-of-war if one side pulls harder, the other side gets yanked away from the side where they started. If the sides were evenly matched it causes a freeze, no one winning and no one losing. France verses the United States, each wanting to win over the love of my heart. Going back and forth, one was winning, and in the next minute the other was on top. Something changed within me in an instant. The country war was snapped to a standstill. Both pulling equally, the two countries were evenly matched. They both hold family and friends near and dear to my heart, both have beautiful city and countryside, both I now consider home.

I have never felt more connected to myself or the world around me than when I was in Idaho this past summer for three weeks. Three weeks of no television, no internet, or even bathrooms and showers. During this time I realized how boxed in I felt in the "real" world. Every day I am constantly surrounded by walls whether they be the four walls of my bedroom, the endless white walls at school, and the invisible walls in my mind, blocking out all fear, danger, and the terrors of the world. Through my experiences in Idaho I worked, lived, and breathed nature, every part of it. I witnessed a moose crossing a stream near hot springs in the mountains, wolves howling me to sleep each night and even swimming in a waterfall The specific moment when I felt this unbreaking bond with nature was on our recreation backpack trip. We slept overnight at a campsite at the bottom of the mountain, falling asleep to the rushing rapids below. The next morning we packed only the necessities into our bags and started the six mile trek through the forest covering the mountain. After crossing two flowing streams we were about a half a mile from our destination of the hot spring and very hungry. We decided to stop for lunch before hiking the last leg to our site. We found this huge natural rock formation that we all could climb up onto and eat lunch and talk. I took off my pack at the bottom and climbed up to the top and ate lunch and laughed with my new family. I finished eating and decided to walk around the huge steps and enjoy the breathtaking views. I sat on the edge of a rock with a thirty foot drop below. With my feet dangling over the edge, I just sat. I sat and let the thoughts run in and out of my head as they may, and for the first time in a very long time I was at peace, at peace with myself and at peace with my surroundings. The walls both physical and mental were breaking down. I had finally knocked down the walls that stood between myself and nature, and also between myself and my thoughts. I felt as though all the fear within me was rushing away with the river below. Fear jumped off the cliff I was sitting on and waved goodbye as it went for a chilly ride down the river. The block that I felt between nature and I decided to walk itself back down the mountain, never to return. I stood up, feeling a lot lighter, because trust me those walls weighed me down, and ran back to my crew and suited back up to continue the final stretch to the hot springs. Standing at the airport in Lewiston, Idaho three days later, was the first time that physical walls stood around me in 21 days. After not having anything to block me in for three weeks, one would think that the feeling of claustrophobia would quickly set in, but no I had never felt so free. Free to live life to the fullest, because I knew that fear and danger were left on the mountain, never to return again.

Breathtaking Views

What is your definition of zen and where have you found it?

Student Conservation Association

06.24.2010 - 07.14.2010

Oh what a trip, what a trip. Well here's a little quick breakdown to give you an idea:

Total Days: 21
Days of Work: 14
Total Hours of Work: 126
Days Off: 2
Recreation Trip Days: 4
Number of Times Doing Laundry: 0 (2 if you count jumping in the lake with clothes on)
Number of Showers: 0....

Well I wanted a wilderness adventure...and I definitely got that and much more. I don't even know how to start to explain my 3 week trip, but I guess I should start at the beginning. I flew from Chicago to Seattle, spent the night at my Uncle's house in Seattle, then flew from Seattle to Lewiston, Idaho the next morning. The 7 other high schoolers from across the country all had the same connecting flight from Salt Lake City to Lewiston, so they had already been acquainted and stood next to the airport's one and only baggage claim waiting my arrival along with my 2 crew leaders. I met everyone and quickly learned that our group of teenagers was very diverse coming from California, Washington D.C., Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Florida with ranging experience in backpacking and hiking also. Our first lunch in the airport park was rather awkward, but we couldn't stop talking on our 2 hour ride from Lewiston to our campsite in the Clearwater National Forest. Leaving all civilization behind the 10 of us ventured into a forested inlet and started setting up our home for the next 2 1/2 weeks. A little bit off the gravel road sat our humble abode which included: kitchen area with a propane stove and hanging bags for our dishes, bear bins with food, sump for all left over liquids, tarped area for hanging out, and of course our clearly marked path to the latrine up the hill. Just through the forest and into the meadow is where we decided to set up our tents; one for the boys, one for the girls, and one for each leader.

By the time everything was set up we were starving and tired. A delicious meal of spicy curry was whipped up leaving us full and heading to our respective tents for our first night in the woods. Sleep fell upon us quickly but were woken sporadically throughout the night by the howling wolves, clucking wild turkeys, scampering ground squirrels, and then finally our leader Kyle singing "Bear Necessities" bright and early the next morning. The animal noises during the night became regular and expected but waking up early each work day was definitely a shock.

I really had no idea what to expect of our work site, all I knew is that we would be working on a trail system near a waterfall. We arrived at Elk Creek Falls after a winding drive through the forest and met our Forest Ranger who had all of our project plans. He took us on a 4 mile hike of the entire trail and showed us our project areas.
Projects:

Lower Falls:
Replace all fencing, create new retaining wall, replace 3 benches, create steps (box steps) clear trees and brush

Middle Falls:
Take down dead tree ,replace all fencing, create 2 retaining walls, create steps (timber steps), replace 1 bench, clear trees and brush

Upper Falls:
Replace horizontal boards on fencing, replace 2 benches, clear trees and brush

Additional:
Replace all remaining benches on all trails, stain and bolt all new trail signs and install them

On paper this might not seem like a lot of work but you have to remember one simple thing: these are non motorized trails, so there are no ATV's to help us bring all lumber, tools and equipment up and down the 1 1/2 miles of trail to each fall, it's all manual labor here. After 2 weeks of hauling in and out 6, 8, and 12 foot boards, I feel like a power lifter. Each day we worked from 8:30 am to 5 pm which meant we had to leave our campsite at 8am, and be awake to eat breakfast and make lunch around 7am. Working was actually a lot of fun, it was a great bonding time for the 10 of us. Tensions did run high towards the end of the project because we did have a deadline, but they all eventually got worked out and the project was successfully finished.

On our 2 days off we drove and explored the surrounding towns to learn a little more about the very diverse area we were staying in. One day we visited the largest tree east of the Sierra-Cascade Crest as well as exploring the millions of trees in the Cedar Groves. The second we drove to the Dworshak Dam and reservoir to learn about alternative energy and resources. Later that day we learned all about the Nez Perce Tribe, Lewis and Clark and Sacagawea at the Nez Perce Museum in Lewiston. All of these places were really interesting and I honestly learned a lot.

After 2 1/2 weeks of work, a fun break was much needed. We ended our work projects on a high note and continued the fun when we planned our 4 day recreation trip to the Stanley Hot Springs in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. The first day of our trip we spent the morning cleaning up and saying goodbye to Elk Creek and our campsite then drove 3 hours to the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness trail head. After such a long drive hiking 6 miles up a mountain was a definite no-go. So we spent the night at the camp ground swimming, eating and catching up on some much needed sleep. The hike up the mountain the next morning had a rough, steep start but flattened out. After crossing 2 rushing rivers we finally made it to the hot springs. The springs were....well hot and smelt a little like eggs but were glorious after a 6 mile hike. We spent the night running from the hot springs to the freezing cold river and making crazy new concoctions of food with all that we had left after our 3 week journey. The hike down the mountain the next afternoon was much easier than the way up and our rec trip ended with everyone feeling accomplished.

All in all, this trip was unlike anything that I've ever done before. I've never backpacked, hiked, or camped outside my backyard. Although I felt rather intimidated at first with the thought of no electricity, internet, texting, or running water, I soon realized that these things that consume so much of our daily lives are just amenities.

Baking gourmet dishes are decadent, but it's much more rewarding to eat nothing but oats and hot water for 2 straight days because that's when you learn you can make 30 different meals with just one basic ingredient. Texting your best friends back home is comforting, but it's heart warming to meet 9 other people who you'd never met before and leave feeling like you've known them your whole life, because that's what real friendship is. Taking a hot shower every day is enjoyable, but it's much more fun to jump into a freezing lake on a 40 degree day in the pouring rain because that's where real adventure is found.

To see more photos from my Idaho trip please visit my Flickr.