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"The True Nature Experience" by Matthias Seevaratnam

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 The True Nature Experience:

It all began with suspense. Going to a hot, humid place with no phones? Everyone's expectations were low, not expecting anything much. First, the majority of the class of 2026 arrived in Gopeng around 10 a.m. All of us were tired from having to meet up at 6:45 that Wednesday morning on the 27th of August. We then loaded all of our luggage into some trucks, and we all crowded the backs of them like prisoners of war. 

The journey to the camping site was fun, an off-road, loud, and hot adventure. Seeing very little civilization felt relieving to enjoy nature again. We all got off the trucks and arrived at our dorms, two dorms for guys and two dorms for girls. There were two groups for the guys' dorm: the loud guys and the quiet ones. After we got settled, we divided into six different groups, all randomized to try to create new friendships and bonds with each other. Each day we had different team building activities and decent food, but the last few days were the best because of the white water rafting and mountain school.

During the white water rafting, we split into nine different groups, each boat had four students and one guide. One team, Logan Kaloo's, was just one guy and three girls; however, their vessel capsized during the steepest, fastest, whitewater rapid due to the weight distribution. Logan was launched far off the raft, and everyone screamed in terror. However, my group came to the rescue and fished Logan out of the water, and other groups saved the different individuals. We learned to work together to save our classmates from this dire situation. 

In an interview, Alex Misra, one of the key observers during the whitewater rafting, explained, "Many individuals did backflips for the first time. A lot of people broke out of their comfort zone as well, and we had many encounters with nature because one time we saw a mega centipede, and it was a half a meter long and it was crazy, but we toughened up and embraced planet Earth together and the true nature of things."

During mountain school, we learned how to traverse rough terrain and control our bodies to complete challenging obstacle courses and climb rock. On the last night, we had a campfire and danced to music. We had an excellent time bonding and singing along, and we had a fun party-like attitude. 

The last day concluded with exploring the biggest cave in Gopeng and then arriving back at the campsite to pack up and return to the back of the trucks to lead us to the buses again. However, in the last few days, quite a few students got sick, so we had two buses: a sick bus with 31 students and a healthy bus with 37 students returning to Gopeng. The ill bus was supposed to be slower because it would have more stops; however, most of the students fell asleep and beat the healthy bus back home to Dalat. However, while many students did get a little sick, overall, everyone enjoyed the Senior Sneak and had a great time and experience, lots of bonding, and great food. 

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