Yesterday I embarked on my first ever camping trip. I took a Girl Scout Basic Outdoor Leadership Training course with three incredibly dear friends who were kind enough to not only accompany me on this outing but put up with my crap throughout the course. My crap included:
1. hating being outside
2. being afraid of all bugs
3. picking up sticks for fire as if they were going to bite me
4. spraying myself with bug spray continually
5. rolling my eyes a lot
6. being afraid of fire because it is hot and it burns
7. snoring when I finally did fall asleep
8. rolling around on the top bunk all night because it was FREAKING HOT
9. being a grump in the morning
10. refusing to shower in that dormitory bathroom
However, I must say that the challenge I think we all overcame together was not beating to death the twenty other women we had to share the dormitory with, particularly around dinner time when we were all trying to cook the prescribed meal. The idea of dividing the making of six different dishes among 24 women when our cooking options were an oven, a stovetop, a propane range with two burners, and charcoal, did more to make me loathe my other camp-mates than anything else. I do have to say, however, that those campmates were THE BOMB and cleaning up, and they were also awesome at getting our asses out of that campground at least an hour early. I was home by 9:30, which allowed me to make it to 10:30 mass before coming home and passing out until 8pm. I’m still woozy, probably from dehydration. And no, I did drink water all day yesterday. Problem is I sweated it out all night last night.
It’s no surprise to me that last night was something I endured rather than enjoyed, since my idea of roughing it is staying at any hotel with less than a four-star rating. However, what did surprise me are the things I enjoyed, such as:
1. nature walking
2. making a fire, despite being afraid of it
3. working with my three friends to make our part of the meal
4. working with my three friends to not throw other women into the snake-filled underbrush
5. lighting a propane burner, which is just like lighting the gas burner back in New York when the pilot light went out
6. unpacking and setting up my bunk
7. re-packing and cleaning up my bunk
8. feeling relatively independent
9. giggling with my friends and annoying all the other annoying women when it was sleep time
10. not killing the spider I saw at the end of the trip this morning, because I had Charlotte’s Web flashbacks. I think E.B. White single-handedly did more for the longevity of spiders than anything else in the universe.
On top of it, I emerged from our camping trip with not one bug bite, skin rash, or allergic reaction. I count that a success.
So yeah. I’m pretty proud of myself. But more than anything else I’m grateful that I had friends to go with me, because I don’t think I could have made it through the weekend on my own.
Every Grace and Blessing 
We would climb mountains, cross deserts, and swim oceans with you. Because you are awesome and also because we love you. Great post and one hundred percent truth. (in case anyone thinks she is exaggerating) I cannot believe I made it through almost 24 hours without threatening to beat someone up and/or not beating someone up. With the exception of you and the two other awesome people with us.
I have often though what a camping experience with just the four of us would have been like. Pitching bug free tents, having a huge box fan inside said tent, making FIRE, big fire, drinking beers around said fire, eating tons of beef jerky and s’mores, giggling until the sun comes up with no snarky woman to put a stop to it and sleeping in.
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Hooray for camping! Hooray for surviving camping! Hooray for feeling independent. And most importantly, hooray for still realizing that we spent tens of thousands of years evolving a society so we wouldn’t have to sleep on the ground, so doing for fun is way down on the list of nice things to do. :)
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I admire you! Great job! I have not done that “camping thing” since I was a Girl Scout and the occasion when my family did it when I was a kid. I have not attempted it as an adult, and won’t. Since I can’t sleep with any fewer than 3 pillows, I don’t think I would do well. I’m proud of you!
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