FIUTS: A Journey North

By Kevin Sander

Normally, going north means going home. My last class ends and I join the daily exodus out of Seattle back to my house in Everett. Go past Everett, however, and my heart quickens. Suddenly I've crossed the Snohomish River, Cascades on my right, and adventure somewhere on the road ahead. There are whole worlds to discover going North; in the ides of November, FIUTS sent me along with a host of others to discover one such world on Camano Island.

I hadn't spent much time on Camano in the past. It's near enough to home, but still out of the way enough to feel seclusive. "I can imagine I'm still in Alaska out here," the shuttle driver said as he helped us find our cabins. It was dark, screaming wind and rain chasing us indoors; indeed we might have well been on the shores of the Bering.

We took the time to get better acquainted, huddled around playing cards and steaming cups of cider, hoping the storm would leave us in the night. Only scattered showers lingered by morning, so undaunted we set out to explore our island neighbor, Whidbey.

After crossing Deception Pass, we were soon enjoying lunch overlooking the Sound at Fort Ebey. Amidst the waves, echoes of a history that could have been were heard inside the halls that once housed rounds of ammunition and ever vigilant sentinels. Those echos were amplified manyfold by Fort Casey just a few miles to the south. The forts were part of a network that was to be the last line of defense against a Japanese fleet should they ever reach the west coast during WWII. That day never came, yet they remain a poignant reminder of those terrible events that so enveloped the world. Among the batteries, our group, descended from those who fought on both sides of the war, in both Europe and the Pacific, stood together. We spoke honestly about our nations' roles in the war and about how those events continue to touch our lives today. It was a conversation both solemn and lined with hope, for the fact was that we now live in a world where we can come together to have it and, through such understanding, avoid repeating the tragedies of our past.

We left Whidbey ready for a different kind of adventure. We were already in Silvertip country, so that evening we stopped in Everett for a Western Hockey League match against the Swift River Broncos. It was a perfect setting to hold conversations about sports in our home countries and share stories about our hometown teams. My hometown team, by the way, routed Swift River 4-0. It was a perfect game for our first time hockey fans to cheer and gasp as we scored and laid on big hits. Go Tips!

We ended our trip with another lunch on the Sound at Kayak Point. Sun-showers turned a simple BBQ into a fight to keep the fire burning, but those woes were themselves quenched under double rainbow vistas and the positive energy that had marked our group from the  beginning.

So ended our journey north. It is a territory that I have ventured through many times and from which I have learned many things. But through FIUTS, I was able to see it all anew - through prisms of culture and history that are not my own. I got the chance to share my home, and through their perspective, they shared it back again with me.