Jorge portrait
  • Expedition: Mar 25-30, 2001
  • Jorge
  • Divisadero Middle School and Sunnyside and Redwood High Schools
  • Hite's Cove

My background...

Well my name is Jorge. I was born in April 9 of 1984 in Fresno[,] California. Even though I was born in Fresno, I only lived here until the age of about four and a half. Before I turned five my mother took me to live over in Mexico where I lived for almost four years. My mom left us over there with my grandmother and my aunt for about six months because she needed to come over to the U.S and make some money to live in Mexico.

She went back to Mexico for us after the six months and brought us back to the U.S. At that time we lived over in Ventura County in Southern California. We lived in a small town called Saticoy. I went to Juanamaria School in the second grade. I learned how to speak English there since I hadn't spoken it very well. After finishing elementary school, I started school over at Balboa Middle school still living in the same place. I was only there for about six months....

Jorge records his group's results as Susan watches.

My experience ...

So far I've had a great experience here in this Yosemite forest trip. I've experienced the importance of team work and the idea of never giving up. Team work was very important in most of the activities if not all of the ones we've had at Yosemite and here at Sierra National Forest. In the hacky sack competition as well as the acid river games we all depended on each other for guidance and support.

Sue, Nary, and Jorge launch snowballs at the rest of the group from the little patch of snow they found in Yosemite Valley.

When we were coming up to our campsite all of us were making sure that everyone was all right because a few people were staying behind. As I was walking the trail towards our campsite, there were moments in which I wasn't sure if I was going to make it up here because I was really tired. There were also times in which I felt unstop[p]able.

I think that what really got me tired was all the breaks we took. Most of those breaks occurred when I was feeling the strongest and just cooled me off which caused me to feel more tired when we resumed the trip on the trail.

Well anyway this is being a great experience which is totally new to me. I would definitely recommend a nature person to come over to Yosemite and enjoy this natural display of beauty. But if in the other hand you are not a nature person, then I'd suggest that you only come for a short visit and not camp out.

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