QUOTE : I’ve held on to those memories for the longest; never<br />letting them go because it takes time – sometimes years –<br />to truly understand how a childhood adventure can impact<br />you.<br />When I look back, I marvel at how surreal that day had<br />been. It was the kind of misadventure one had only seen<br />in the movies and in all those stories the protagonists were<br />adults, some of whom did not make it. But we were just<br />children, and this was happening to us. And this was as real<br />as it could get.<br />For years after, numerous existential questions raced<br />through my head: Was God testing us? Were we handpicked<br />for it? Was it preordained? Th en the fog started to lift and I<br />saw it for what it was: a day in the jungle. Also, a day when<br />everything went wrong. I’d read somewhere that adversity<br />does not build character, it reveals it. We were tested, we<br />were pushed to the limits of our physical and emotional<br />endurance. We made it out alive, and it is important that<br />this experience be shared.