Ocoee Raft Trip is a Wild Ride-by Elizabeth Chism, Student Contributor

For 24 years the St. Agnes Upper School has kicked off the school year with one of the most anticipated student adventures-the annual Ocoee River rafting trip. Read below as Student Contributor, Elizabeth Chism, tells a first-hand account of this exciting weekend!

Sisterhood is one of our core values at St. Agnes. Through different retreats, Spirit Week, Field Day, and other opportunities, we are really able to take time to connect with one another. One of these opportunities took place two weeks ago when we went on the annual Ocoee River trip.  The trip started immediately after school on Friday with a five-hour bus ride, and an hour stop in Murfreesboro for a dinner break. Once we finally got to the hotel, we all went up to our rooms and all got ready for the rafting trip the next day.

Saturday morning started at 7:00 a.m. and we immediately rode to the rafting company. We anxiously awaited our turn to go down to the Ocoee River where we would all get to bond and play games. After what felt like a lot of waiting, it was finally time to go rafting, so we all got on a bus and drove to where we would begin rafting.

Immediately after you step off the bus, you feel a sense of peace as you feel the cool air coming off the river, hear the water moving down the river, and feel the sun on your back. Very soon after you start rafting with your guide and five other girls, the sense of peace goes away as you learn how to use your paddles and immediately go down the rapids.

On one of the rapids my raft ran into a rock and started to fill with water! We had to get out of the raft and climb onto a rock while we tried to get the water out of our raft. As we continued to raft down the river, we were able to see the beautiful mountains and plants all around us.

Right before we stopped for lunch, we went down the rapids called “The Olympics” because the 1996 Olympics were hosted there. As we went down, we splashed within the brisk water and people were falling out. Everyone was either screaming or laughing, but we were all having an amazing time.

The rafting trip is such a great bonding experience because you are all just trying to stay on the raft, and you have to trust your peers to make sure when you do fall out you are not in the water for that long. You also are on a raft with five people you know and a raft guide for many hours, so you all get to know more about each other. Although rafting can be scary at times, having your friends there really makes it more fun than scary!