Meet Cinthya

Last week I was coming home from school, I wasn’t even in the house yet, but I could hear my brothers screaming. I was thinking “How am I supposed to do homework?” You see, I live in a very loud house. I have four siblings that I live with, all of them under the age of six. It is very hard to concentrate or focus on one thing for an extended period of time. School is definitely less chaotic, but it’s still very stressful, since I have to focus on my academic work. So, Team Wilderness is my outlet, an escape route.

In the summer of 2021, my stepmom saw a post about Team Wilderness, and asked if I wanted to sign up for a week to go paddling on the Hudson. I thought this might be worth a try. I had never paddled before in my life, and I was terrified. I’ve been to the city pool but I had never been in an ocean or lake or anything like the Hudson. We were wearing life jackets, but I was still frightened. We all know the stories about the bodies in the Hudson and now I was on it. Kayaking was tough. When it was windy the current would take us in the wrong direction. The boy I was partnered with was getting frustrated and wasn’t always paddling so I felt like I had to do it by myself. We worked on our communication and eventually I was able to get more comfortable and started to have fun.

After having this amazing experience, I wanted to do more, so signed up for Summer Treks, the hiking and camping program. One of the things I liked the most about the hikes was the Ten Minutes of Silence. We took ten minutes on each hike, just to be present and focus on putting one foot in front of the other.

We didn’t have anything else to worry about, except being in the present moment. In those moments you start noticing more things. Like on one trail it was a mile from the ocean and during the moment of silence I noticed there was so much sand on the trail that was still wet from rain the day before. It sounded so different from leaves crackling under our feet on the other hikes. It was a very big difference from my house, where we can hardly hear ourselves think.

Of course, there were challenging adventures. I think the most challenging trip I went on was the first overnight trip, when we went rappelling. This was a whole new terror; To look over the cliff and realize only a couple of ropes were going to hold you while you went down. I can’t even remember going down, only the terror beforehand, and the rushing adrenaline afterwards. I was so overwhelmed after going down that I just burst into tears. Immediately, everyone came to my side, to make sure I was okay. I assured everyone that I was fine, I just couldn’t contain my emotion. I think that being able to overcome that cliff made me feel like I could overcome anything in life.

Last fall I signed up for the Photography Club. I wanted to try it out because it seemed so different. It’s really unique to learn how to express yourself through your pictures.

Each picture I took on the trail wasn’t just a cool photo but a memory of how I felt. And my most impactful memory from Photo Club was selling a photo I took. I had taken a picture of church doors in the neighborhood because it reminded me of my childhood in Brazil. And then in my first gallery ever a man that grew up in the same neighborhood saw the picture and was so overcome with joy, that he cried. I felt exhilarated to bring so much joy to someone I didn’t even know.

Overall, my house is still loud but Team Wilderness is the safe haven and escape place I have. I will always sign up for everything they have to offer because it is an environment I need to be part of. All my friends and people my age need this too.