“I have years of experience on you,” my mother always tells me with a smirk. Experience is how you mature and become an adult. I gained years of life lessons in just two weeks last summer while backpacking in the Appalachian Mountains. North Carolina Outward Bound School taught me courage and faith and was the catalyst for my transition to adulthood. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay This backpacking adventure was mostly about survival. To protect us from the wilderness elements, our group of ten was taught practical skills such as hanging a bear bag, using a compass and setting up tarps. On the surface, these skills seem irrelevant to the real world. Subsequently, learning these tasks became the agent of my development. For me, Outward Bound served as a “Life 101” course. My life in the wilderness included the vital combination of self-reliance and team commitment. The last three days of our journey were billed as our Finale, where we would be completely alone, without the help of our leaders. It was in these three grueling days that we evolved both individually and collectively. It was critical that we work together to address our biggest obstacle: getting lost. Our original method was to have everyone make suggestions on where to go. But among the ten of us there were too many opinions and the result was chaos. A new approach was crucial, and after the first day, I organically emerged as one of the two leaders. Martin and I took responsibility, he was able to decipher the maps and I made sure everyone was pulling their weight; I assigned tasks, divided the equipment, and took command of the kitchen and bear bag. We have evolved as a group, becoming much more functional and finding a balance between leadership and collaboration. My individual growth has manifested itself in the courage to stand up as a leader. I have let go of my fear of standing up, taking responsibility, and offering my opinions. This newfound courage played a critical role in my transition to adulthood, along with what I learned about the power of faith. The type of faith I'm talking about has no religious affiliation; it is a trust in the universe. During my fourteen nights in nature, especially the last three hellish nights, my faith in the world flourished. With the amount of brutal moments, this type of faith was a necessity to survive. It would have been too easy to think that all my efforts were useless and give up. Giving up was never an option for me in Outward Bound, and in this way, the program required my strength and maturity in a way I had never experienced before. The most challenging night, by far, was the second night of our final. We were in the middle of a violent storm that demolished our tarps in the middle of the night. As I tried to fall asleep in the middle of a puddle, ignoring the possibility of electrocution, I thought to myself, “This is it. This is the bottom." I sobbed in both terror and desperation. But the morning came anyway and finally the sun shone. It was after that night that my faith in the universe was cemented forever. The four pillars of Outward Bound (fitness, craftsmanship, self-confidence and compassion) were all part of a bigger picture: survival. Backpacking in the mountains put all ten of us in survival mode, which made growth and maturity non-selective..”