Isaac Benjamin Ellman
Last year, I made a decision that I had never made before. I decided to spend two weeks of my summer in a foreign place, doing things I had never done before, with people I had never met before. Although I had experienced summer camps, I had always gone with a friend. So, when I was accepted as member of a Landmark team that would volunteer at InfoAge in Wall, New Jersey, I was nervous because I would not know any of the other volunteers. My anxiety almost kept me from volunteering. Now in the fall, I am here to say that spending two weeks with people I had never met before was one of the best decisions I have ever made.

Although it may take months to make new friends in a school environment, at Landmark I bonded with all different types of people very quickly. I believe I was able to make friends so easily because we were always working together. Whether we were painting fences, using our artistic skills to camouflage a building, trailblazing through uncharted woods to create new hiking trails, using “Tarzan-techniques” to pull down vines to open up the view behind one of the InfoAge cottages, experimenting with light construction and spackling to refurbish an old warehouse into a spectacular multi-purpose room, preparing and cooking our own meals, and even just helping each other get up in the morning (with an effective set of pots and pans), we always enjoyed ourselves. Working together in large groups brought out the best in all of us; we grew close through hard work, open to everyone’s ideas, and a lot of shared fun.

I am from Connecticut, and I met people from places that stretched from Canada to Florida. By the end of the two weeks, I had made a dozen new friends. Yet, they did not feel like new friends, it felt like I had known them since I was little. Therefore, when we said goodbye, I was saying goodbye to old friends. It was hard leaving, but I have remained in touch with my group. My Landmark experience taught me that when a group of strangers comes together for a good cause and operates with mutual trust and respect for each other, amazing things can be accomplished. The work was rewarding, and the friendships will last a lifetime.

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