My L.L. Bean Dog

March 20, 2018 by Torrie Hazelwood in USA

*Feel free to skip the writing and go right to the photos, I get it*

Full disclosure, Svein is not an L.L. Bean model but every time we get a new catalog, we'll leaf through it and say, "that could've been you, Svein. Too bad you missed the callback when you were a pup." While being incredibly good-looking, and told that constantly, Svein is still the every-dog with his struggles and quirks. For instance, if I throw the ball for him in the snow, he is terrible at finding it even if he saw where it fell (top photo here was when he found the ball after a 10-minute search...). He also gets his lip caught on his teeth fairly often and looks like a complete doof. And, during the winter, he regularly immerses his head in piles of snow for unknown reasons (smells? Idk). His hobbies include coming up from behind people and jamming his head in between their legs in hopes of a chin scratch, looking hopeful whenever food is around, and deciding to roll onto his back, right to the middle of the bed every night, without fail (why should I have room for my whole body to fit on my bed? Who am I? The Queen of England??). That being said, Svein is also gentle with children, has been a great source of comfort through some rough times, and is the best running buddy. So L.L. Bean dog official or not, he's more than deserving of my obsession with him and worthy of the Instagram account I will inevitably create for his many fans.

Puppy Svein (he still chooses to sit on my lap this way from time to time). Photo by J.H.

Some Call it Vacationland, I Call it Home

December 30, 2017 by Torrie Hazelwood in USA

One of the greatest parts about friends visiting or moving to your hometown is you begin to see it in an entirely new light. Much like watching kids experience things for the first time, your awareness of what's going on around you is peaked and new joy is found in the seemingly mundane. You're more apt to explore, you appreciate what you've taken for granted for so many years -restaurants, cool local businesses, nature, LIVING ON THE OCEAN-, and you become (even more) fiercely proud of where you grew up. People often ask where I'll settle down, and the answer usually involves a shrug of my shoulders and a "who knows", but as time goes by, the thought of Maine being my forever home creeps in every once in a while.......but then again, 🤷🏻‍♀️ who knows?

PS Thank you to all of my lovely friends from across the USA and around the world who have come to visit or moved to Maine - you've truly made my heart grow fonder for this place!

Svein, Harpswell, Maine, USA — *Svein, Harpswell, Maine, USA*

Giant's Stairs, Bailey Island, Maine, USA

Pine Point Beach, Scarborough, Maine, USA

Urban Farm Fermentory, Portland, Maine, USA

Learning from Experience, not AUS-mosis

August 12, 2016 by Torrie Hazelwood in Australia, Travel

I've often tried to recall the moment or series of moments where I became more aware of my positionality and when I gained a sense of agency with regard to my role in larger social issues. My years at a four week overnight summer camp taught me independence, how to live and work with people who think differently than myself, and to never assume I have the correct or complete answer. All this laid the foundation for my more "profound" realizations (I'm only in my mid-twenties and realize I have a long way to go). Despite my fuzzy recollections of specific moments on my way to being more reflexive, I do know that most of them have come through traveling.

From my first trips with family and then graduating to solo travel, I’ve found the development of self-awareness is key to learning about the people and places around me. I've also found that a heuristic approach allowed me to learn from mistakes and sharpen what I've now come to think of as my intuitive judgment. It is particularly important for me to remember this when I am leading immersion leadership travel programs over the past four summers. Along with a co-leader and host partner, we facilitate a group of fifteen fifteen year olds. For those of you who have traveled with teens, or were once a teen and can to be real with yourself, exploring travel and what leadership looks like with this age group has its ups and downs. Many are adept at navigating airports, most greet new experiences with enthusiasm and, in the programs that I lead, they are motivated to improve their leadership skills. While cultivating and improving these skills are key aspects of the program, there's the overarching goal of cultivating social responsibility. The core of participants' understanding and practicing social responsibility comes through developing a heightened sense of awareness and then transferring the skills gained and experiences back to their everyday life.

Social responsibility is a heady concept with varying definitions. I found that boiling it down to: a heightened awareness of yourself, how your actions impact others (both positively and negatively), and your ability to work with others through active listening, asking questions, and taking measured action is palatable to most teenagers. Practicing this, however, takes time. I have to remember that I wasn't a fully formed human at fifteen and despite the intense five week leadership program, developing the key components of social responsibility, if following the heuristic approach, is a process. Giving kids the space to evolve allows them ownership over their skill sets and, often times, I learn from them in the process. Here are a few shots from the recent program I co-lead to Australia. The first set of photos are from the Sydney area - nearby mountains, famous architectural landmarks and relaxing city dwellers – and the last few are from the Broken Hill area – ghost towns left from the mining boom, an introduction to Australian first nation peoples, and red dirt that gets everywhere

*Blue Mountains, Katoomba, NSW, Australia*

Becket-Chimney Corners Around the World, Part 2

January 14, 2016 by Torrie Hazelwood in Travel, Australia

Its a hard thing to convey to people and even harder to believe it when they say they understand. I talk about camp a lot (some may say this is a massive understatement) but there's a reason. Tucked away in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, the Town of Becket plays host to a community that is at once global and local. Many of us have lived and/or traveled with each other to distant places. We stay in one others' homes where they and/or their parents and relatives take us in as surrogate family/children, making us feel at home because they know it will be reciprocated when they visit us. We crave spending time with each other, whether to hear about one anothers day, a good travel story, singing or simply sit quietly in each others presence while doing our own thing. Being together flexes a certain part of my heart reserved for my camp friends. Having worked at a camp like BCCYMCA, we know the value of teamwork, we are (in most cases) aware of our strengths and where we can improve and each adventure is not left for one person to plan and no job is done without the support of another. For many, we feel our second home is in the Berkshires, a physical place for us to get together, but in reality, we are each others' second home, spread around the world and waiting to welcome each other home.

These are a few images from when my Kiwi camp friends and I visited Australian and USA camp friends living in Merimbula, Australia. Most of us met at Becket-Chimney Corners YMCA in Becket, Massachusetts, USA.