September 13, 2018
It is said that groups of people go through five different stages during their time together. If you look for it, our crew follows these stages as well. The first is “conforming”. This happened in our first few days together when everyone on the crew was just trying to fit in and show what they thought their “best” selves were. We were all trying to figure out who everyone was and how we would fit into the group. Next came “norming”. At this point, a week or so in, the crew started to get comfortable with each other and began to understand where people were coming from, and what made them tick. We started to get into the rhythm of chores and work, enjoying the new people and lifestyle out in the Caribou Wilderness. Our “storming” phase was not all at once, nor was it catastrophic. Nevertheless, there were some petty disagreements as well as some discomfort that sometimes came between us. I think much of this discomfort came from the differences between us whether it was race, religion, class, or just where you grew up. We began “preforming” when we were able to look past our differences and see each other as unique individuals rather than labels.
As we began to see past stereotypes that separated us, we were able to succeed both in and out of the workplace. I think the way we were able to get to this stage was through sharing our personal stories with each other. The stories, both hilarious and heartbreaking, brought about a deeper understanding of everyone else in the group, as well as ourselves. So, as we near the last few days of our time together we will soon be left in the final stage of “mourning”. We are forced to do our best to savor flying time as we realize that this group of people will never be together in the same way again.