“Awakening moments” are those pivotal moments that shape a person’s paradigm and changes the direction of their life. These life changing moments happen every day in the Outback wilderness for staff, students and therapists. While these moments are often small, they have big impacts on the lives of those experiencing them. These awakening moments are the foundation of Outback.
Useless hate –
“I was in a group of boys one time talking with students about their journey at Outback. As they talked about what it was like in the beginning, one boy’s comments stood out to me. He said that for the first 3 weeks he worked really hard to hate the staff. When he said that, my curiosity peaked so I asked him to explain. He went on to talk about how when he first arrived in Outback he was so angry that he committed to himself that he wouldn’t let anyone in to influence him. He felt that he could stage his own little rebellion against his parents by ‘wasting their money” by sending him to wilderness and then seeing him remain the same. He knew that even though the field guides weren’t doing anything to make them his enemies, he needed to shut them out of his emotions. After a few weeks of him treating the staff poorly with no reactive or punitive response, he finally couldn’t take it anymore. He couldn’t stand treating people badly when they had been nothing but good to him. He finally told the staff what his plan had been and began to open up, accept their mentorship and make lasting changes through the remainder of his stay.”
