If you have never been to an ICP concert or seen the documentary “American Juggalo” it may be difficult for you to imagine what we’re hoping to capture here ““ and that is FAMILY. Let me be more specific, it is the type of family that makes the best times better and the worst times even better than those, like going on a carnival ride after chugging caribou-lou (or Faygo).

It has been our honor and our deepest pleasure to have spent the last four years as part of the Trinity O-REC Family. Together we have summitted the tallest peaks in the Southwest, stood at the edge of the nation on the banks of the Rio Grande, driven thousands of miles and hiked almost as many; together we have exceeded any sense of the ordinary. We have survived mutinies, car crashes (if you count backing into trees), bear attacks (Stephen), dehydration, over-hydration (pasta water), raw meat, rattle snakes (does NOT taste like chicken) and rogue wilderness hillbillies (Virgil). John Steinbeck wrote, “A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.” Our journey at Trinity has been defined by trips: backpacking trips through Big Bend, canoeing trips down the Colorado River, surfing trips, caving trips, rock-climbing trips, day trips, weekend trips, Thanksgiving trips, Spring Break trips, acid trips”¦

We would like to thank all of you who have ever gone on an O-REC trip. We really appreciate getting to share our passion with each of you. And we would like express our gratitude, admiration and love for our fellow O-RECers. Thank you for all your hard work, your dedication and your mad duet skills; because when it comes down to it, you have had our backs at the most trying moments, and lets’s face it ““ singing along to country music requires a good duet now and then. Those of us graduating leave with the comfort of knowing that O-REC will continue to seek adventure and be guided by the passion and expertise of our younger generations. WHOOP WHOOP.

Jessa Hunchins is graduating with a degree in neuroscience. Helen Atkinson is graduating with a degree in English.