{"id":3329,"date":"2022-10-26T13:09:52","date_gmt":"2022-10-26T19:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jcjc.edu\/jcnews\/?p=3329"},"modified":"2022-10-26T13:13:33","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T19:13:33","slug":"survivalist-sam-larson-shares-alone-adventures-with-jones-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jcjc.edu\/jcnews\/news\/survivalist-sam-larson-shares-alone-adventures-with-jones-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Survivalist, Sam Larson shares \u201cAlone\u201d adventures with 糖心直播"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
John Stockstill with survivalist, Sam Larson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ELLISVILLE \u2013 Hearing the stories about surviving the wilderness from the History Channel\u2019s winner of the 5th<\/sup> season of, \u201cAlone-Redemption,\u201d<\/em> Sam Larson proved to be inspirational to students, administration, and guests of\u00a0糖心直播\u2019s Charles Pickering Honors Institute speaker forum. In preparation for classes and realizing the effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic, Dean of the Honors College, John Stockstill remembered watching Larson when he debuted on the first season of the wilderness survival TV series and considered how Larson could inspire his students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to reach out to someone who had been through some very difficult experiences in life, and when at rock bottom they had nothing left to give, they reached into some deep places in their soul to find that inner strength,\u201d said Stockstill.<\/p>\n

In his first visit to the South, Larson admitted to feeling uncomfortable on a college campus. As a high school senior, Larson knew the outdoors was where he wanted to spend his life and not in a classroom or traditional job. A search on the Internet led him to the Jack Mountain Bushcraft Mountain School in northern Maine and the adventure of his lifetime began.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cWhen you\u2019re out in the wilderness, something that appeals to me is you\u2019re dealing with the raw element of nature,\u201d said Larson. \u201cIt\u2019s just the natural world and human beings. How do these two go together because there is no social hierarchy; mother nature is not playing favorites. It\u2019s just you and the natural world and whatever you can do with the materials in your surroundings. I absolutely loved it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Traveling all over North America, from the Southwest desert to the Canadian Ice Shield, learning from the Northern Quebec Cree Indian, and numerous places in between, Larson learned a variety of survival skills. However, he eventually had to return to Nebraska to work. He began blogging about his adventures in the wilderness and it caught a casting producer\u2019s attention from the History Channel.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe sent me an email explaining they were exploring survival show ideas as some shows were getting pulled from the networks. She said they were going to take 10 people with 10 survival items and drop them in a remote region where they can\u2019t find each other and whoever lasts the longest wins. They were going to teach them how to use the camera equipment so they would really be alone,\u201d said Larson. \u201cThey had an idea that intrigued me. I thought, one, it\u2019s not going to work and two, I have to do this!\u201d<\/p>\n

The then 25-year-old Lincoln Nebraska native was invited to appear on the\"\"<\/a> new wilderness survival show for its first season in 2015. His wife Sydney was seven months pregnant with their first child, but he couldn\u2019t pass up the \u201conce in a lifetime\u201d survival challenge. When he learned about the destination, however, he felt under-prepared.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve traveled to a bunch of places \u2026 and I had learned a lot of things at that point, but I didn\u2019t learn or know a lot of the skills really necessary to survive in the coastal British Columbia wilderness. The first thing that caught me off guard, being a kid from Nebraska, was the ocean life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arriving in the Northern British Island of Vancouver, Larson said he felt like he just wasted all his time preparing for something he wasn\u2019t really equipped to do. Adversity hit him hard upon landing on the rainy, stormy coastal island. However, he said he didn\u2019t want to regret not trying or dropping out. Before long, Larson was catching salmon and crabs, trapping rodents, foraging from the sea, and eating limpets from the ocean.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kept telling myself, give it all you got, don\u2019t squander this once in a lifetime\"\"<\/a> opportunity-don\u2019t mess up! After seven weeks of that, I called on the satellite phone and I tapped out. I gave it my all and I felt OK about it at the time. Soon after they picked me up, I learned there was only one other guy out there,\u201d said Larson.<\/p>\n

After beating eight people, surviving 55 days in an unfamiliar environment, Larson wondered if he had pushed harder, could he have won? Realizing he wouldn\u2019t have another opportunity, he came back to Lincoln and continued working at the Nature Center teaching survivalist skills and leading nature hikes. Amazingly, Larson got another call from the casting director about being on a redemption series of Alone,<\/em> in 2018, for season 5, of the History Channel show.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe asked me, \u2018How would you like a second, once in a lifetime opportunity?\u2019 I was all over it! I said, \u2018Sign me up!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

When he learned about the new format, bringing back 10 former contestants to Asia, Larson was sure he was going to the jungle or a tropical island. He was surprised to learn the destination was the Kensee Mountains in northeastern Mongolia, 30 miles from Siberia.<\/p>\n

\u201cMongolia and the sheer remoteness of the area, the wildlife, and extreme\"\"<\/a> temperatures made this by far, the most dangerous location,\u201d said Larson. \u201cThis will be extremely tough, not just the elements and critters and everything that could get you, but you\u2019re competing against a group of people who are extremely experienced, and a group that\u2019s proven they can stay out in the wilderness a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Larson arrived in Mongolia, he said it was like d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu, learning all these things that he didn\u2019t know even though he thought he was well prepared. The hardest thing as he arrived was leaving his wife with a 7-day-old baby and a 2-year-old.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had this feeling of self-doubt the whole time; Am I doing the right thing by being out here?\u201d said Larson. \u201cThe food situation, not to mention the cold was one thing. In August, the winter comes fast out here. The food situation was way worse than British Columbia. It was like there was just nothing to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>During the 60 days in the frozen tundra, Larson survived on Eurasian voles or little rats he trapped, minnows, snails, grasshoppers, ants, and leeches. The food situation was pretty dire, leaving him with only a few options as winter settled in and the snow piled up. Utilizing a survival trick from his mentor, as finding firewood was a day\u2019s task and food was non-existent, Larson managed to find a way to survive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe theory was when your body starts to starve, you can compensate for that in some ways by overhydrating it. I got a pot full of water and took whatever I had around, herbs, pine needles, call it \u2018tea\u2019 if you like, but there\u2019s no sugar like in the south. It\u2019s hot water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every day for weeks, this was all Larson had and he was thankful. He also had a quote from Winston Churchill that helped him mentally. \u201cSuccess is failing constantly but moving from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.\u201d Despite his daily failure to find wood and food, that hot cup of water kept him happy enough to get to the medical exam day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was day 60. I remember being really cranky, asking the crew why they were messing with me and my rhythm. They set up a camera and started asking questions and I thought it was weird. \u2018Are you eating anything?\u2019 I said, \u2018no.\u2019 \u2018Are you cold\u2026. happy?\u2019\u00a0 But after a while, I remembered how dire the situation really was and I started to tear up and began crying,\u201d said Larson. \u201cOut of nowhere, I felt these arms come around me from behind and it was my wife, and she tells me, \u2018Sam you just won!\u2019 It was one of the happiest days of my entire life. To go from a totally depraved state to having this warm hug of a loved one, food was on its way and the mission was finally complete.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larson shared with the audience that his wife is the unsung hero of the whole experience. Being at home with now, three kids, unable to \u201ctap out\u201d when things got to \"\"<\/a>be too much, was very motivational and inspiring to Larson. Also inspired by the experience, was 糖心直播 sophomore from Runnelstown, Gracye Tower.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough he was eating leeches and small bugs and nothing some days, he was happy about being alive. I think a lot of us take being alive for granted. We just expect it to happen every day and it doesn’t. We lose people every day. He was grateful for his hot water. I thought that was very inspirational,\u201d said Tower.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Larson advised the audience the best way to prepare is to expect the unexpected and to be gritty. Taking care of business every day, despite the situation, no matter how hard you\u2019re suffering he said, may not mean being tough.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Mongolia, in my most vulnerable situation what grit looked like was staring into a cup of hot water day in and day out and deciding not to sulk, but to be thankful for what I had no matter what that thing was, day in and day out. Figure out what you can be thankful for, no matter how small it is or if people think it\u2019s stupid, find the one thing you\u2019re thankful for and focus on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, Larson advised the audience that no matter what we do in life, to find something to care about more. For sophomore Sarah Morgan of Columbia, it reminded her of her top priority in life.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, that translated to my relationship with God. I think that\u2019s what he was hinting at, because that\u2019s how I can apply it in my life. If I don\u2019t get into Physical Therapy school, or I don\u2019t pass the test in the end. It\u2019s not going to ruin me because there\u2019s something more important and to me and it\u2019s God.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ELLISVILLE \u2013 Hearing the stories about surviving the wilderness from the History Channel\u2019s winner of the 5th season of, \u201cAlone-Redemption,\u201d Sam Larson proved to be inspirational to students, administration, and guests of\u00a0糖心直播\u2019s Charles Pickering Honors Institute speaker forum. In preparation for classes and realizing the effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic, Dean of the Honors … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Survivalist, Sam Larson shares \u201cAlone\u201d adventures with 糖心直播”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3330,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jcjc.edu\/jcnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3329"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jcjc.edu\/jcnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jcjc.edu\/jcnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcjc.edu\/jcnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcjc.edu\/jcnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3329"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcjc.edu\/jcnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3345,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcjc.edu\/jcnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3329\/revisions\/3345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcjc.edu\/jcnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jcjc.edu\/jcnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcjc.edu\/jcnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcjc.edu\/jcnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}