1999-2000 Freshman class Joshua Tree retreat

From Stmargarets

A famous tradition for every incoming Freshman class is a "breaking in" of the students at Joshua Tree. After a three hour long bus ride, students were left in the middle of nowhere and instructed to build their own tents. The trip mostly consisted of barely edible food, female camp coordinators that had some kind of religious objection to shaving their legs, and outhouses that reeked of stenches not imaginable, even by standards of human feces.

While many had shed blood, sweat, and tears through the hot weather, the most notable loss was that of Shannon Dardashti's favor among the students. His reputation visibly and instantly plumetted on the morning of the second day, in which at 6:30 Shannon yelled, at a volume audible to the entire camp, "Oh my God it's morning!" The shout was rumored to have wakened the entire camp, and threats were issued to both Shannon and tent-mate Riaz Makan. Even in Shannon's later years at SMES, individuals confessed that they still harbored animosity over that event.