It was approaching dusk on Aug. 22. On the Zeacliff Trail in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, daylight slipped away as my FOP Trip 19 trudged deeper into the canopy of Hardwoods and Conifers with wobbling rocks and slippery roots threatening to trip us at every step. Songs about “Da Moose” and “The Princess Pat” inflated the fragile balloon of group morale to distract from the rapidly dropping temperature and cold wind slapping across our faces. The prediction of “15 more minutes” turned into hours crawling by; in the thick, dark night, the campsite started to feel like a mirage.
Finally, the troop reached a set of stairs that led us to a ranger’s hut. Taking this ascent on all fours with backpacks like lead-filled anchors, FOPer Conor Cowan ’28 shared the sentiment of most from the first night: “The most memorable part was the final set of stairs. It felt like crawling up from the pits of hell.”
The First Year Outdoor Program (FOP), established in 1979, is Harvard’s oldest and largest pre-orientation program, with more than 20% of incoming first-year class participants and 80 upperclassman leaders. From site-based trips to wilderness backpacking, FOP programming aims to serve as a transformative week for incoming first-years to let loose and prepare for the whirlwind of the first year of college. As my FOPer Harry McGovern ’28 stated, “If life is nothing without stories, then FOP has given me a lifetime.”
Before the FOP trip, my co-leader and I sat down to “Trip Vision.” Settled in the comfort of our seats and warmed by the institutional LED lights above us, it was easy to envision a perfect trip. We laid out our goals on paper: “Have fun outside in nature,” “Build confidence in physical and emotional capacities through stretching outside of your comfort zone,” and “Help the pre-frosh transition to freshman year through making connections.”
The Steering Committee, the student board directors of FOP, asked the leaders a week before the trip went out, “Why are you here?” Why did I put 200 hours into learning how to hang bear bags, have a 5-star Poop, sleep on a rock in a soaking wet sleeping bag, and shout “CHOW” before every meal?
There is something appealing about risk and pushing your body past its threshold of comfort. It is what the true outdoor adventurers call Type 2 fun. Cowan defined Type 2 fun as “the kind where you are miserable in the moment, but upon completion, you reflect fondly on the experience.”
There is no hard science behind it, but hardcore outdoor adventurers classify their lives by the “fun scale” instead of a textbook or bible. Everybody likes fun. And fun, like anything, can be nuanced—not all fun is created equal. Belinda Kirk, a British explorer and author of Adventure Revolution: The Life-Changing Power of Choosing Challenge, made a career out of being cold, wet, and muddy, and calling it fun. In an interview with Much Better Adventures, she explores how, “When you leave your comfort zone, and you do something that is challenging and difficult, you don’t step back into your comfort zone afterwards—it expands to meet you.” She reinforces why I chose to lead a FOP trip: to pursue experiences that are uncertain and uncomfortable in order to find enrichment in life.
Type 1 fun is enjoyable while it’s happening. Think apple-picking in the fall with your friends or watching Gossip Girl over wine with your blockmates. Type 3 fun? Well, it’s not actually fun. Mountaineers describe it as “harrowing,” like getting lost in the wilderness or trying to swim across the Atlantic. It’s when the risk outweighs the reward and you have to pray it will never happen again.
The Fall Outdoors Program is in the sweet spot of Type 2 fun. It challenges you without putting you in real danger—it’s uncomfortable in the ways that make you feel alive. “Life exists on the top of a mountain, slapping you in the face with a gust of wind and kicking you to the ground so that you may yield to the beauty of the world in front of you. Never in my life have I felt more alive;, never in my life have I felt more fulfilled,” said McGovern, who lives by the fun scale.
For Zoe Macaluso ’28, a FOPer and experienced camp counselor, the biggest takeaway from the Type 2 fun on the FOP trip was that “you can do hard things.” Compared to the negligible problems of everyday life, she found that “even if an obstacle seems really daunting, at least it’s not climbing up a huge hill at 11:30 at night with someone having hypothermia right behind me.”
No matter how miserable the experience was at the moment, both Cowan and Macaluso would do it again because of the connections they made. As a testament to the lasting bonds we built, our FOP spent our first night back on campus sharing “Fuzzy Cheesecake” by the Charles River and Macaluso celebrated her birthday with the seven new friends she made in the first week of school.
Let’s revisit the question we asked ourselves before heading into the wild. “Why are we really here?” Macaluso reflected. “I would do the exact same experience over again three times. I would hike up an 8,000 foot peak. I would do it all. Every challenge, every step, even the hardest ones.”
I might have led FOP on a whim, but I found my reason after five days of 4,000 foot mountains riddled with injuries and evacuations. I pushed myself to the edge physically and mentally and got through it with a healthy helping of humor, spectacular views, and brilliant relationships with my co-leader and my FOPers.
I encourage you to pursue more Type 2 fun, whether it be through leading a FOP trip or elsewhere, to find positive moments amid discomfort. I promise you will remember it for years to come.
Ellie Tunnell ’27 (ellie_tunnell@college.harvard.edu) had almost too much Type 2 fun on FOP.