The Hardy Journey

This was a very good course for me to attend. I heard about it when I did my Leadership and Imagination course in January. Michael and Alicia were in that session so I was very glad that they both signed up for this. As a course offered for the first time, I thought the professor team did a very good job with the syllabus.

I actually liked the fact that it was twelve weeks. It did not seem that long and it permitted me to really dive into the material and relate the content to other ORGL coursework. I thought it was an interesting tie to put in Frankl’s work and existentialism for the first assignment. It made me think more about how meaning is created. His recommendations by doing, suffering and through love impacted me.

I really think I improved my hardiness throughout this process. All I have to do in a tough situation is to think about hardiness and a “Hawthorne” like effect induces my performance. I am generally an “amped”person so I can go from being calm, aware, to stressed out/angered pretty quickly. I’ve learned to control that better through some of the coping mechanisms advocated by Maddi & Khoshoba.

The culmination of this course was obviously the climb. I am very glad I made it to the top. I still feel good about doing it. And I almost feel lazy right now because I’m out of my training routine! I will be setting fitness goals similar to the climb from now on because it gives me something to work for.

Lastly, it was great seeing all of my classmates. I was glad to have spoken with Keyth, Michael, and Kelly on the phone prior to the climb. It was some needed interaction for the course. I think when you are in a distance program you fully appreciate the experiential learning received from classmates. I was amazed at how Sherpa like Keyth was. Michael was extremely prepared and had the most training out of any of us. I know it was difficult for Kelly to turn back. When you google Mt. Adams, “beginner”mountain comes up a lot. All of us, except for maybe Keyth, were humbled by the challenge of the mountain.

I am in a new position at work and this week we had “ops” reviews. Basically, these are territory reviews. We always put fun facts to give the audience insight into who we are. I bragged about the Gonzaga program and everyone loved the fact that I just climbed a mountain. It almost felt as good as actually climbing it!