Another Ode to Woolman

Dear Woolman,

You weren’t what I expected. I guess I don’t really know what I expected. I didn’t expect manzanita. I didn’t expect it to be so dry and lacking of mushrooms, at least in the beginning. I thought that by the end I would feel all experienced and knowledgeable, and confident in my beliefs and opinions, knowing exactly what to do next. Well, here I am with three weeks to go, and maybe those things are true, but I still don’t feel the wayI expected.

Maybe it’s because I can’t wait to go home, and my homesickness is obscuring my feelings towards the last few months. I bet once I go home I’m sure I’ll really begin to see how valuable this experience was. I really did have a lot of good times. Going for adventures in the woods, finding a huge variety of beautiful mushrooms, then coming back and making spore prints galore. Eating a delicious shaggy mane cooked up in coconut oil. Climbing every climbable tree on campus. Climbing that one tree with the rope in it, and swinging out off the branches. Playing with Brosenberg at a much more legit than expected high school auditorium, opening for Michael Moore. THE YUBA, the wilderness trip, watching a snake swallow a fish, then seeing it happen again a couple weeks later. Man, I went swimming in the Yuba every weekend until October. I loved visiting the cows and the obelisk, listening to it hum. I had so many great times avoiding my homework, probably the best. I can’t wait to come back in a few years and see how Woolman has changed. The forest garden will be so wonderful, and hopefully with mushrooms from my project among the rest. Right now I can’t wait to go home, but I’m sure eventually I’ll feel the same way about coming back.

With love,

Colman Lee