The price for a life-changing experience could be quantified in the digital cameras, cell phones, iPods, retainers, clothes and souvenirs at the bottom of the Aegean Sea.

Out of a drama few would ever want to experience, however, eight Kitsap students wrote off the stuff and relish what they learned about life and themselves.

Brittany O’Toole, a Bremerton senior, learned that when crisis arises, even people who annoy each other can put their feelings aside to save each other. "You end up being close the people who were driving you nuts," she said.

Brittney Wasserburger, a Bremerton junior, has about 500 photos she was able to bring home from the trip, but the most significant seem to be the couple from the shore at Santorini, looking out at a cruise ship listing well to one side.

The Sea Diamond was about to dock, but the kids were already thinking about home. Most of them had already packed before this final excursion of the tour.

Robin Kiess, a science teacher at Klahowya, was among those up top. She grew up in Poulsbo going out on a fishing boat with her father, so the scraping sounded to her like the ship had dropped anchor. When the ship stopped she thought it had caught on something.

Kelly Underwood, a Klahowya junior, said no one below was scared at first. A couple of minutes later they heard the sound of air rushing through the corridor and saw two previously locked doors blown open by water.

The ship listed. The hallways and stairs became jammed, the students said, with people shoving others at the doorways leading to the top deck. "It was pure chaos inside the ship," Bremerton junior Ryan Selberg said.

The exit off the ship was equally as harrowing. The lifeboats were crammed with passengers, some of whom had jumped on board. They were lowered, but the movements were jerky and one boat even became lodged on the side of the ship, with passengers shifting to help free it.

Leaving the plane they faced the television crews. Peterson spotted her mother and in tears made a dash for her, a scene the cameras caught. Underwood was pushed into an interview by her mother after another student ducked away.

Since then they’ve been asked to tell their stories to their friends and to strangers. Carrie Swanson, a Bremerton junior, said she hasn’t had to tell it too many times. However, Chase Estes, Kiess’ son and a King’s West freshman, said three girls approached him in Barnes & Noble and asked for his autograph and his MySpace address. They also wanted him to pose with them for a picture.

But they are also willing to acknowledge the lessons they learned on a trip that Kiess is quick to be clear wasn’t a school-related excursion.

O’Toole said she learned about characteristics she didn’t know she had. "When everybody was freaking out before we got on the lifeboats, I found myself trying to comfort them and that’s kind of out of character for me," she said.

For Selberg, the incident off Santorini and the aftermath gave him reason to take stock of value of the stuff underwater versus the people on land.

"I value my own life and my relationships with my friends and my family a lot more," he said, "and material possessions and stuff like that just don’t really mean anything anymore"

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