Chicks In the Wild

Every day for the past two summers, I’ve enjoyed my morning cup of tea while looking out at the beautiful views of the Canadian Rockies. In the silence and serenity of the wilderness, my mind never feels more clear. I’ve spent these summers working at The Plain of Six Glaciers Teahouse in Lake Louise, Alberta. The Teahouse is a full-service restaurant in the backcountry of the Rockies, and each week a crew of 12 badass women hike up to the teahouse and settle in for a five-day shift. A six-kilometre hike takes us to the steps of a 100-year-old building which has no electricity, no road access, and yes, no cellphone service. Spending my summers immersed in such an isolated environment has without a doubt, made a significant impact on how I interact with people, technology, and myself. At home, an element of social comparison exists in my daily life. This tendency to compare myself to others tends to linger somewhere in the back of my mind, but it is completely absent during my stay at the teahouse. Living in such close proximity to 12 other people means we inevitably get to see the good and bad sides of each other. Being in such a remote location, distant from technology and social media, I feel a unique sense of acceptance in our little circle. We all wear dirty clothes covered in cake batter. We walk around with greasy hair and the smell of homemade hummus. I’ve never been so comfortable being naked around others, and I never even knew this feeling of comfort was missing from my life until I experienced it here. Due to how intertwined many of our relationships have become with technology, those raw moments we had at the teahouse are virtually impossible to experience at Queen’s. In the wilderness of the Rockies, removed from the ongoing maintenance of our online personas, we were finally able to see each other for who we are, rather than how we sometimes feel pressured to portray ourselves. Getting outside and experiencing nature in its most authentic form is something I think our generation needs to experience more. That being said, you don’t need the backcountry in order to take a moment to re-evaluate your relationship with technology. Nowadays, we often need to make conscious efforts to spend more time being present with both our friends and ourselves. Despite knowing this, upon my return to reality, I have to consciously work on not falling back into the bad habit of engaging with my phone more than I engage with people. In the isolation of the teahouse, distraction in the form of a continuous stream of notifications is gone. When all you have immediately available is nature and a couple of books, you find different, better ways of entertaining yourself. Having actual meaningful conversations for hours after dinner became the norm, as opposed to the exception. Rather than checking our phones after a long day of work, we checked in with each other. After each summer spent at the teahouse, I have left knowing that I’ve built genuine and unique relationships I will truly cherish for the rest of my life.

by Lauren Duffy