Garrick Hoffman

Let me tell you why I’m so delighted and fortunate to be a student here at SMCC.

In late June of this past summer, I received a message from a fellow student who informed me that there was a white water rafting trip just days away, that there was a sudden berth in the original gang of participants, and that I now had an opportunity to go. My response? Verbatim: “I’m very down. …this sound killer!” I had never gone white water rafting before.

The perks? SMCC Business Club would cover all the expenses, including the cabin for two days and two nights, the food, and the actual rafting itself. All that was required from the participating students was their insurance information. The trip was signed up with Northern Outdoors, a company that not only harbors a resort, restaurant, and the cabins, but also hosts the trip itself with a staff of well-trained guides.

Here are just a few adjectives I could employ to describe our rafting trip: exhilarating; wildly fun; intimate; unforgettable. But even with the indubitable exhilaration as one might expect from such a trip, there were nonetheless moments of serenity found throughout.

If my memory proves true, there were eight of us students who participated. Going into the trip, I knew but one person, Saman Baghestani, the founder of Sopo Books who not only acquired the funding for and facilitated the trip, but proved to be a consummately organized and helpful team player. So, knowing only one person, I had a feeling I’d be cultivating new friendships with this group of strangers.

After arriving to our accommodations with shared feelings of ebullience, we were further elated when we went to the resort and brewery center: outside there was a sizable hot tub, a pool with a volleyball net, and many tables for dining, and inside there were a number of couches, an arcade, a restaurant, and a bar, among other offerings. To this I had to remark to Business Club member and Enactus president Sineah McGrady, “God bless you for inviting me.” I guess I was feeling so ecstatic that I forgot my secularity for a moment there.

After a night of eating, chatting, enjoying the camaraderie of each others’ company, and doing yoga poses on a log in the river that resulted in the untimely death of my camera, we woke early for breakfast to begin the entrée of our trip: a day of white water rafting.

First, at the resort center, we and the many other people rafting for the day were given a ten- or fifteen-minute tutorial of what to expect, what to equip ourselves with, and how not to die on the river. When those formalities were over with, we were loaded up on a bus, oars in hand and dressed in our helmets and life jackets, and taken away to someplace magical, which actually didn’t end up being Hogwarts but rather the river, which is just as magical. One of the employees, whose name was Ryan and who later became the guide for my raft, spoke from the front of the bus as we traveled to our destination. He not only kept the crowd busy with interesting information of the area that would be fitting on the bottoms of Snapple caps, but with an abundance of laughs, as well.

We students were all divided among different rafts, so we all had different experiences with different guides. Collectively, however, we tackled some beast-like rapids early on and throughout, stopping at one point on a little sandbar-like area for a lunch with one’s choice of steak, chicken, or salmon, and plenty of other provisions. Scattered here and there on the side of the river were employees with video cameras, capturing the intensity of the moments, and of course capturing all the child-like, exhilarated miens of the raftees as they passed on by through some furious rapids. At another juncture, all the rafts pulled over for a gaze-worthy waterfall for the raftees to delight in. The Business Club gathered in the center of it for a few pictures that showcased our thrill of being part of the trip.

And so we moved on, taking on more rapids with gusto and obeying our guides’ every command. At one point on the river, we were even permitted to hop out of the raft to do some swimming and some floating, letting the river carry us with no effort. If you chose the latter, you could feel like Superman soaring in the air but beneath the surface of the water. We were admonished to keep our feet up so as to not catch ourselves on any insidious rocks, which could prove to be perilous. Eventually we were even given the opportunity to guide our own inflatable kayaks, which many of us didn’t cease to take. I know that when I took my opportunity, this was of the utmost serenity for me, as I emancipated myself from the group for a bit in favor of solitude and reflection, which as an introvert I need.

And of course, the trip came to an end. I don’t think any of us wanted it to. I still felt like I was just getting started. Not to say that the trip was short lived; I think we all got our filling. I think it was just the pleasure of floating on the river and the thrill of it all that left some of us hungry for more. But all good things do indeed come to an end.

Just because we were off the river didn’t mean it was the complete terminus to the entire trip, however. We got to watch an entertaining video that the Northern Outdoors folks hastily made that day of us. When that was done, the Business Club played a game of volleyball in the pool, having a blast and doing our best not to disturb the pool-side patrons, which wasn’t really easy. At night, we did some more cooking, some more hanging and chatting, played some cards and gazed at the stars, listened to the Into The Wild soundtrack (not for the first time that trip), and called it a day, leaving the following morning to return home.

On behalf of the group, I want to thank Saman for his many successful efforts to make the trip happen, and of course the SMCC Business Club for making the trip possible to begin with. We’re all incredibly grateful, and I know that the trip was one of the best of my life. I’m sure the others in our gang could say the same.