Leaping from the computer to the mountains, Braydon Bolt ‘23 decided that online school was not for him, “I applied after closing a pretty rough semester of my sophomore year. I wanted to get out of the East, and having been told about the school by a friend who had the same feelings before she went, I decided to take the leap,” Bolt said. Bolt went to Mountain School, traveling west and then to South America. “I was in Idaho for around two months, and then on November 1st we flew down to Santiago, and then took another flight to Balmaceda, where we then spent the rest of the semester at Lago Atravesado on the campus there,” Bolt said. Applying to these schools is a process, but even having second thoughts as Bolt did was worth it. “Truth be told, I applied pretty late, roughly the end of May and the start of June,” Bolt said. Although not an early application, “I had my doubts about getting in despite my late application, but low and behold, I did get in. 

Leaving behind East, although new, was only a positive for Bolt. “I want to say the decision was hard, but it wasn’t. Frankly, it was very easy to leave; I didn’t feel anything holding me back,” Bolt said. The mountain school ditched technology away from reality to enhance students’ outdoor experience, “For a long while I didn’t have my phone, internet, and even electricity. We sometimes ran out of water, but that really didn’t bother me. It was all part of the experience,” Bolt said. School for Bolt was similar to East, “ I spent time doing normal school, but with the added addition of a lot of time outdoors,” Bolt said. He kept up with his academics while exploring and completing the curriculum of the mountain school. Part of the experience was investing in the culture of their surroundings. “I did interact a lot with Chilean culture. I got to play soccer with some grade-schoolers and it was a ton of fun,” Bolt said. 

Food being an essential part of cultures, Bolt explains a crazy experience of same-day kill meal. “The best meal I had definitely would have been the lamb that my friend Gaston’s family prepared for us. It had been killed that day and grilled on our campus in Chile.,” Bolt said. 

Sticking with him back home, as he reflected, “The most memorable moment for me would probably be on the 3rd night of backpacking, my friend Ellis and I sat down and played a game of backgammon as the sunset behind us,” Bolt said. Making a long-term network of connections, he “met lots of cool people! Since everyone with school came from around the country, I got some insight into how people live outside our “bubble”. Two students were actually from Chile so living in Gaston allowed me to learn about some norms for kids our age in a foreign country. On top of just being a student, I got to speak with a lot of people in Chile, they’re all very friendly, and we’re glad that people had begun to travel again amidst the pandemic,” Bolt said. 

Traveling for months would change most people’s outlooks “I think I also changed. It’s not really easy to say how but I feel more like I know what I want to do in the future, and though that’s never exactly clear, I just need to keep putting one foot in front of the other,” Bolt said. 

Reflecting on the camp, “My favorite part of the experience was definitely that I got to meet people in a unique situation such as this. I made really good friends during my time there,” Bolt said. Eager to leave, “I wasn’t homesick at all. Honestly, I feel a longing to go back to Chile,” Bolt said.