I Wandered Lonely (Not Really) At Raquette Lake

When rereading Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," I was suddenly reminded of my time at Raquette Lake, New York. In February of my senior year of high school, my Ecology class took a trip to Raquette Lake up north. I was a little nervous, because I'm not really one for nature. Also, none of my close friends were going on that trip, they had all gone in the fall instead. I was with people I kind of knew, but not really, and had never spent time with outside of class. But I ended up becoming extremely close with the ten other girls on the trip, and to this day we still chat about our time on the trip, and wish we could go back. It was also the middle of winter, and we were expected to trot around the woods, cross-country ski across the frozen lake, and learn survival skills. I had no previous experience in any of these fields. But the part that reminded me in particular of Wordsworth's poem was when my teacher told us to bundle up, and took us all out into the woods in the middle of the night. It was a partly cloudy night, and because there were almost no lights around this lake, we could see the stars. I'd never seen so many stars in my life. My teacher told us to find our own little spot in this huge field and just lay down. I didn't expect what I experienced. Everyone was silent. We just looked up at the sky, listened to the wind, and got lost in our own thoughts. I had never felt so peaceful and tranquil in my entire life. I had time to reflect and appreciate the world around me, without any distractions. The way the moon and stars were framed by the clouds reminds me of exactly what Wordsworth experienced with the flowers. When I close my eyes at night, I can still picture the way the sky looked that night. I really want the chance to do it again if I can, and experience the bond I made both with nature and the people on the trip.