It become very popular trend for Mormon youth to reenact the Mormon Pioneer handcart migration to Utah by the summer I turned seventeen (2003). It was my luck to experience the journey in my last official year as a “young woman.”

Youth in my region were sorted into “Families” and assigned adult “mas and pas” for the duration of the reenactment, which lasted three days in the Utah wilderness.

On July 30 I woke up at the buttcrack of dawn, pulled on my thrifted pioneer clothes, and climbed on the bus with all the other unsuspecting sleepy-eyed kids.

What I remember coming after was mostly fatigue, frustration, being forced to participate in a lot of things I didn’t want to do, and confusion, which all culminated in a weepy testimony meeting (as is the custom for these types of youth activities).