When I think about my journey with Dharma over the last few years, joy, laughter, and hard work come to mind. It’s difficult to pinpoint one memory as being my favorite (as I’ve been with this program for more than five years now), but one race from 2016 stands out. Our youth team was competing on Lake Champlain in Vermont, and we were racing gigantic, hulking longboats that featured wooden pegs as oar locks. Now, our team had become a bit spoiled with the traditional oar locks in the Dharma boats, so we were a little confused and nervous. However, we figured it out the best we could and powered on to the start line. Fast forward to about halfway through the race, and we held a lead over all our competitors. Our team is keeping a good pace, and we’re having loads of fun when the unthinkable happens-- a teammate’s oar comes loose. With a look of sheer horror on all of our faces, we watched as the oar quickly floated away from the boat and became smaller and smaller in the distance. A million thoughts leap from everyone’s’ mouths at the same time: “Do we need to turn around and go get that?” “Are we going to be able to finish the race?!?” “What do we do now?” “Do you think we’re going to have to pay for that??” One voice shouts over the rest, “JUST KEEP GOING,” and we did. We ended up winning the race with only 3 out of 4 oars, and it is a memory that I will never forget. Knowing that all of our training and hard work had paid off, the whole team was giddy with pride, disbelief, and excitement. It was also helpful that a search boat was sent out and was successfully able to recover the missing oar later in the day. Being a Dharma Voyage team member, and experiencing things like this, have truly taught me how to adapt, overcome and improvise. I am so thankful for this program, and I don’t know what I would do without it.