As a therapist, I find myself thinking a lot about values: Our students’ values, Black Mountain Academy’s core values, my own personal values, etc. I have a collection of “values cards” that I will sometimes use with students to help them identify the values that are most important to them. We will discuss ways that these values can be incorporated into their social interactions, into the relationships they have with their friends and family, and into the choices they make. One of the values is “Adventure.” I have a book that accompanies these values cards and, in the book, there is a description/definition of each value. For Adventure, it reads: “Your life is a grand adventure. Take risks. Explore the unknown. Journey forth into the great wide open without preplanned outcomes” (Tyler and Drake 54).
Whether our students would consider “adventure” to be one of their top personal values or not, I have seen them benefit from experiencing it. They benefit from taking calculated risks, from discovering something they did not know before, and by embarking on journeys, both personal and actual, without knowing precisely what the outcome will be. International travel is a perfect opportunity to experience “adventure.” During November 2023, I co-led a trip to Portugal with six students and, as I reflect on the trip, I think about how fortunate these students are to have experienced “adventure,” and how wonderful it was to help facilitate it.
In Portugal, our students were presented with challenges and new experiences and, I think, it is through challenges and new experiences that personal growth and development happens, whether we want it or not. We harvested olives and watched and learned how they would be turned into olive oil, we rode horses on the beach, we went to a professional soccer match (futbol!), we visited castles, palaces, and forts, we toured religiously significant sites, we tried new food, we hiked on the coast. Each student had a favorite experience and, I suspect, each student had a least favorite experience; all students experienced adventure.
Tyler, Kathy, and Drake, Joy. The Original Angel Cards Book: Inspirational Messages and Meditations. Allegro Corporation, 2006.
Ryan Bachrach, MSW, LCSW, Clinical Director
