百草園：這篇文章是兒子給《海外文軒》子女教育集寫的文章，由我譯成中文。如果不是這篇文章，我還真不知道大部分孩子入學以後，剛開始大學生活時，都有一份焦慮和緊張，他們都需要一定的方式和時間去適應這個生命的新階段。 叢林之旅----助我步入大學生涯
緊張、激動、茫然、加焦急，這些感覺一起攪在我心頭。站在大學操場上，那一刻，在從小長大熟悉家的千里之外，四周環繞的都是陌生面孔。一想到這個地方將要成為我的新家，這怎能不叫人心頭匯集五味雜陳的感覺。對我來說，上大學就是從以前熟悉、協調的高中生活里，迎接一個巨大的人生轉變。 很明顯，我的大學已經採用了許多方法來幫助我們，讓我們這些新生儘量容易、平穩地開始生命的新階段。校方採用的策略之一，就是這個著名的新生五天的野營活動。學校的野營活動五花八門，我參加的是其中的登山活動，我們這個小組除了新生以外，還有兩個帶隊的老生。這個五天的野營活動，我們大家簡稱為“旅”，也可以稱之為叢林之旅。這是校方精心計劃的讓我們在沒有學課壓力下，儘快地交朋友方式，它又能讓我們在老生的引導下更好地了解大學生活。在向野營組織部門報到後，站在這片不熟悉的土地上，四周都是像我一樣的新生。讓我鬆了一口氣的是，周圍的每個人也都和我一樣，每張面孔都帶着焦慮和不安。 終於，我們這個野營團體集合好了。領隊讓我們開始互相介紹。介紹的當然都是那些你初遇陌生人應該講的“安全得體“的話題，諸如自己的名字、來自何方、為什麼選擇這所大學、想學什麼專業，許許多多話題。我們這個小組有七位新生加兩個老生，老生一個是大四，一個是大三的學生。我感到那兩位老生領隊似乎非常有權威，因為他們好像知道所有的事情，不管我們提什麼問題，他們都會自信滿懷地回答我們。最後，大家終於把自我介紹這個話題整個過了一遍，所有的野營小組也都給領到屋裡，下一步是進行這五天野營的安全教育訓話。 安全教育總是既瑣碎又無聊，況且我們大家都已經被這一整天的高度緊張搞得精疲力盡，現在面臨着幾十條安全條例就要仍向我們。等了很久以後，好像驟然間，所有在屋裡的領隊忽然跳了起來，我們這些新生幾乎全都給嚇了一跳，非常驚詫。但是我們馬上就明白了，這個所謂的安全教育，實際上是領隊們編演成的歌舞秀。作為美國最老的大學之一，我的大學有許多老規則，包括這個安全教育秀。歌曲和舞蹈都是領隊的老生自編自演--他們在歌曲里告誡我們如何在溪流里取水、別在森林裡扔垃圾、和一些其它重要的安全條例。這個歌舞秀，把我們搞的既興奮又激動，主要是他們把活動搞的太出乎意料。以後的整個野營都像這樣，充滿了許多這樣的老傳統樂趣。 第二天，終於開始了我們的叢林之旅。一個大巴士把大家送到野營的路邊。感謝上帝，天氣非常好，有雲彩又不太熱。不過山路上還是有前兩天下雨積存下的水坑和泥土。我們要爬幾英里山路才能吃午飯。走在山路上，我們一起玩單詞遊戲，也互相講話，讓我們互相能更加了解。由於樹林的屏蔽，只有我們這一伙人走在山路上，讓我們更好地粘在一起，也更容易互相溝通。那天晚上，在負重三十磅爬了七英里以後，我們到了山頂上的一座林間小屋，當時的感覺是精疲力盡加饑寒交迫。吃飽飯後，大家高興地高談闊論、開懷大笑，最後我們都很快地在自己的睡袋裡沉入夢鄉之中。 早上，我們收拾好自己的行裝，繼續前行。我們那天的預定目標是爬到最高山峰頂上，那裡冬天是滑雪場地，當然現在是一片綠草蔥蔥。儘管在爬了七英里以後，又是一個精疲力盡的一天，我們還是興高采烈地與另一個野營小組一起玩了簡易棒球。這個友好的比賽，讓我們這些新生更加靠近，大家相處的更隨便了。 儘管五天裡我們無法洗澡、體力上很透支，可野營的時光隨着各種遊戲搞笑而飛逝。最後一天，所有的野營小組都匯合到一個學校擁有大的木屋裡。這天的跋涉比較少，也比較放鬆，我們有機會認識更多的人，玩更多的遊戲，甚至還用小船玩沖水。在野營結束時，大家都變成了很親密的朋友，也對大學未來生活有了更大的自信。 開始上課以後，我們這個野營小組的朋友都散到校園的不同宿舍，選修不同的課，參加不同的活動。可我們還是找時間一起吃吃飯，保持聯繫。隨着大家慢慢適應了大學生活，也隨着課業和活動的加重，野營時交下的幾個朋友，一直都是密朋。 大學對任何人來講，都是一個巨大的人生轉變。第一天自己站在那裡，周圍都是陌生人的那份恐懼，還是記憶猶新。學校組織的新生野營，給了我自信、聰慧，讓我能更好地去面對課程的挑戰和大學的所有一切。對我來說，新生野營是最好的方式助我進入大學生活，讓我走進我生命的新階段。我知道我們這個野營組的朋友，在大學裡一直會是好朋友，也相信我們的友誼會通向未來。 A Trip in the Woods - Adjusting to College Life Nervousness and excitement and confusion and anticipation. I was feeling all of these emotions and more, standing on a lawn full of strangers in a place several hundred miles away from where I’d lived for the majority of my life. But this place was about to become my new home and that’s why I had so many emotions coursing through my mind. College was a huge transition from the well-known and comfortable routine of high school which I had gotten so used to over the previous four years. Obviously, though, my college deployed many strategies to help ease us into life there and to help calm us while we adjusted to a whole new life. One of those strategies was to thrust us into a five-day trip of hiking and climbing in the woods with a group of other first year students as well as two older students who were our leaders and mentors. The goal of these five days of camping and physical exhaustion, which we simply referred to as “trips,” was to accelerate us into making friends quickly and using our trip leaders to answer all our questions and worries about college life. So, as I was standing there on that unfamiliar lawn, after just checking-in for my trip section, I was looking around at all the other confused and nervous first year students and was glad everyone was just as scared as I was. Eventually, however, my trip section assembled together and made our introductions – we told each other our names, where we were from, why we chose this college instead of others, what we were thinking of majoring in, and many more “safe” topics that seemed to be comfortable to ask people that we just met. There were seven other first year students in my group along with two trip leaders, a senior and a junior. Both of my trip leaders seemed intimidating to me that first night because they seemed to know everything and were very confident in answering any and all of our questions. Finally, after we had thoroughly exhausted all the introductory conversation, all of the trip groups were led inside one of the buildings to be given a safety talk for our five-day forest adventure. The safety talk was both intimidating and boring – we were already exhausted from all our emotions throughout the day and now dozens of complex safety rules were being thrust upon us. After what seemed like an eternity, all of the sudden all the trip leaders in the room jumped up. Completely surprised and confused, we quickly learned that the so-called safety talk was just a ruse as all of the upperclassmen burst into song and dance. As one of the oldest colleges in the United States, my college naturally had many traditions, including this one. The songs that the trip leaders sang and danced to were of their own creation – they had written songs about staying with our group, filtering stream water, not littering in the forests, and other important safety topics. We were both excited and energized by these shows, mostly due to the surprise nature of it all. The rest of freshman trips carried this same tone of surprise traditions and fun. The next day, we finally left for our trip in the forests. We were dropped off by a bus next to the start of the trail by the road. Thankfully, the weather was very nice – it was cloudy and not unbearably hot. The trails, however, were covered in puddles and pits of mud due to rain from days prior. We hiked several miles before stopping for lunch. Along the trails, we played word games and talked to each other more – we were now much more comfortable around each other because the isolation of the woods banded us together. That night, after hiking about seven miles uphill with thirty-pound backpacks, we stopped at a shelter at the top of the mountain, exhausted and ready to eat dinner. After eating, we spent time talking and laughing, then finally set up our sleeping bags and dropped into deep sleep. In the morning, we packed up our things and continued hiking onward. We were scheduled to hike to a cabin near the skiway – a strip of sloped land that was covered in snow in the winter for skiing, but was grassy in the heat of September. Though exhausted from another day of hiking around seven miles, we still managed to play a quick game of whiffle ball with another trip group that we ran across at the skiway. It was a friendly game between newfound companions and by now we were extremely comfortable with the people we were around, with all our anxieties forgotten in the great outdoors. The rest of our trip went by quickly with lots of fun, physical exertion, and not being able to shower for five days.On the last day, we hiked to the destination that all the trip groups were heading toward – a giant lodge owned by my college. The final day was about relaxing after all the strenuous hiking; we had fun meeting more people, playing silly games, and careening down makeshift waterslides. At the end of it all, we emerged close friends and slightly more confident in adjusting to college life with our newfound support systems. With classes starting soon after, our small trip group was scattered across campus in different dorms, different classes, and different activities. We still made time, however, to meet each other for meals and catch up. While adjusting to a college schedule, with much harder classes as well as much more time spent outside of class, those first few friends I made on freshman trips still stayed with me. College is a huge adjustment for anyone – your life gets flipped around and changed completely. Being alone on that first day surrounded by so many strangers scared me, but through my college’s freshman trips, I became more confident, wiser, and felt ready to tackle the huge challenges of classes, extracurricular activities, and more. To me, freshman trips was the best transition my college could have given me to adjust to my new life. I know that my friends from my trip group will continue to stick together throughout the rest of college, and hopefully even further. 相關文章： 兒子上大學（1）分享心靈雞湯 兒子上大學（2）起飛之前 兒子上大學（3）初入校門 兒子上大學（4）選課的挑戰 兒子上大學（5）重新認識兒子 兒子上大學（6）大學室友 兒子上大學（7）大學育兒也教母 兒子上大學（8）初談選專業 兒子上大學（9）放手讓小鷹飛翔 兒子上大學（10）大學新生家長周末（Family Weekend） |
