Life’s a Journey

No Matter the Destination, Our Class Trips Help Us Make Memories Together

By Elliette

Each January, our Upper School students participate in Winterm, an experiential learning program that engages students outside of the traditional classroom and provides exposure to the world beyond Cannon. During junior year, students learn professional skills and explore career options or engage in on- or off-campus job shadowing. Elliette Zukowski ’24 spent the week with Cannon’s marketing department, and wrote the following article as an assignment.

The changing color of leaves, the cooling breeze, and the scent of freshly sharpened pencils all mean one thing - it’s the start of a new school year. Each August, I always look forward to something. It could be the school talent show, the rock paper scissors tournament, or my personal favorite - the annual class trips. Class trips are a special way to bond with your classmates, get to know new people, provide great ways to try new things, and bring our community together outside of the classroom. Personally, I most enjoyed the trip to the Georgia Aquarium in fifth grade, because my favorite memory was falling asleep next to my best friends as the millions of fish and big sharks swam over us in the tank above.

Due to COVID, we missed out on some cool experiences and opportunities, but all that did was make the adventures we have experienced more memorable. I wanted to know how people have experienced these adventures and the thrill of finally being able to go on the favorite tradition of yearly class trips.

“Camp Kanuga in 5th grade was my favorite field trip because it had a really fun ropes course, and there were competitions involved. It was challenging when you first got up, because it was all netting and high up, so it was also scary. You didn’t know what to expect, but it was awesome!”

“My favorite memory from Pigeon Forge was the whitewater rafting, because it was just really fun and I have never gotten to do it before. The trip was great because I was with all my friends, and our advisory went to a really cool dinner one night.”