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Thank you, NYC Outward Bound! We’re forever changed because of you.

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See you in Worcester!

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Team Happy Birthday all chose to accept their Outward Bound pins. Well-deserved, team. Where will we go from here?

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Made it back to headquarters! Enjoying our last meal, halal chicken and lamb with rice and salad. Bomb dot com. 👌

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As we near the end of our time here, we pause and reflect. We write. Processing is an act of self-care. In this world of gifs and memes and hashtags, we’re not often afforded the time and space (and the expectation) to make sense of our experiences in solitude and quiet, with pen and paper. The events of the last four days swirl in our minds and, word by word, we ink them into consciousness. We know this process doesn’t end when we close our notebooks. We’ll be moved to revisit our experiences in the near future and we hope we’ll remember to write once again.

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“Of all possessions a friend is the most precious.” —Herodotus

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The locals help us pass the time!

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If you give a mouse an iPhone, he’ll take a secret selfie.

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The Flower Power Initiative teaches us that we’re not entitled to other people’s gratitude, even if what we have to offer is a free flower. Sixth time’s the charm for Ally, who had the honor of receiving this woman’s thanks.

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Breakfast bagels and morning games!

“Okay, for this game, yell out a vegetable on the count of three. Jack and I’ll do our best impression of it, and then you vote for who did it better.”

“One… two… three… CHICKEN!”

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We spent the night at the Lewis H. Latimer House in Flushing. Latimer was an inventor, best known for improving Edison’s lightbulb by figuring out how to create carbon filament. (That’s what’s giving the lightbulb pictured an orange glow.) What’s most remarkable about Latimer’s story is that he was a slave. He ran away to Boston and fought for his freedom by working with abolitionists there. Latimer was also a poet and as his wedding vow, he read his Ebon Venus:

Let other boast of maidens fair, Of eyes blue and golden hair; My heart like a needle ever true Turns to the maid of ebon hue. I love her form of matchless grace, The dark brown beauty of her face, Her lips that speak of love’s delight, Her eyes that gleam as stars at night. O’er marble Venus let them rage Who set the fashions of the age; Each to his taste; but as for me, My Venus shall be ebony.

At first read, some may wonder why Latimer felt to exalt black beauty over white, but remember this: at that time (and perhaps still today), beauty was narrowly defined as white and blue-eyed and blond-haired, and to be dark-skinned was associated distinctly with the slave caste. So to say not only that black was beautiful but that it was preferred, in Latimer’s heart and eyes, must have been a particularly moving sentiment for his new bride who perhaps lived her whole life being told she was not beautiful.

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We ended our night with the Gift Initiative, Outward Bound’s version of Secret Snowflake. All in, safe and sound. 😴

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So many options! The team enjoys dinner at New World Mall - Korean, Chinese, and more.

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In Flushing, we operate with the currency of stories; the more we collect, the richer we become. These stories move us, they make us laugh, and we’re pushed beyond our comfort zones. We practice the art of listening - REALLY listening - and we find ourselves changed as a result. How do we honor and harness the power of our stories? This is how - by finding the threads that connect us all.

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Eddie 0 Ms. Im 1 🏀✨

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How many middlers does it take to drink a cup of bubble tea?

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“We don’t stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing.” —George Bernard Shaw