Amanda Bertrand

As Amanda Bertrand relates about her weekend with RYLA, “Oh, how awkward to get on a bus with 10 strangers (plus a student from my school). It was so SILENT, but not for long. One of the strangers was Goob from Linden who was asked to return to RYLA and he told us we needed to come up with our RYLA names. It really didn’t take long before we were bonding and knew each other’s “names”. Amanda was soon know only as “Smalls”. Even though we were told we’d have no service for our cells phones, it was amazing that the bars disappeared on the phones!

“Unfortunately, everyone seemed to have a cabin to put their stuff in but me. So that was left to be decided right before we went to bed and after a lot of activities. First off we joined a group and were soon getting involved after that initial thought of Oh, my gosh, what have we gotten ourselves into? I think I might have to go home if this is going to be how they are all weekend. But we stayed and got involved and really enjoyed getting to know the other students. Yes, the “ice breakers” were silly, but soon all were laughing and learning names.”

Smalls ended up in Team 2, the Orange Team which they called “Caution” (complete with a team chant) and a bag named “Cone”. Soon trust issues and problem-solving were put into play which helped as the weekend progressed with more challenges. Being blind-folded and following each other and communicating kept everyone aware of each other.

After finding a cabin the next surprise for Smalls was discovering that the bathrooms were not attached to her cabin! And more will not be said about the temperature in the cabins!

As the months of Covid-19 separation continues, Smalls still keeps in touch each week with her teammates. Despite the lack of sleep time at RYLA, all the returning Juniors on the bus couldn’t stop talking with each other. As Smalls concludes her story, she adds, “the most memorable part of my entire junior year was definitely RYLA and it’s something I’ll take with me until I die and I definitely recommend any upcoming Junior to sign up for it because it’s definitely a life-changer.”