In Case You Missed The Previous Recaps:
Okay, now let me preface this post with explaining the “Freshman Divya.” Prior to freshman year of college, I had no idea what the words “roughing it” meant. I had never been camping and the only overnight trip I had been on was Outdoor Science Camp in 5th grade (<—-we slept in enclosed cabins with fully functioning toilets and sinks. I barely participated in any of the group activities. And came back with nothing but extremely-chapped lips and an aversion to the outdoors).
So when I set foot onto Camp RiverGlen – UniCamp’s campsite – I wanted to turn and run the other way. It was not at all what I had expected. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting – but it wasn’t this. Not only did we make the 45-minute trek from the bottom of the mountain to some parking lot entrance. But we had to continue from that entrance down a 3-mile unpaved trail to reach our campsite. Those 3-miles took nearly 20 minutes because we couldn’t move faster than 5 mph for fear that our tires would blow.
Right after crossing over the bridge. Everywhere you look – trees, dirt, bugs. This sheltered girl was NOT used to this….
When we got out of the car, a gust of warm wind hit me in the face. There was dirt all around me. I was surrounded by trees and the mosquitos had already taken a liking to my skin. We crossed over the bridge and entered into camp. I saw a recreation area to my left (and by “rec area,” I mean a raised net blocked off by logs) and a big barn-like structure in front of me, which I later found out was the Lodge. To my right was a trail that led to the cabins. We started heading in that direction. I took one look at the cabins and that’s when the fear started to hit – the panic and anxiety that I wouldn’t be able to hack it. They were open-air cabins – meaning they had no doors or windows. Insects and bugs (more specifically, those damn mosquitoes) could come and go as they pleased. Don’t even get me started on the other animals that could easily just crawl into our cabin in the middle of the night (bats? baby bears? MOUNTAIN LIONS?).
My mind was racing with all these crazy thoughts. And it continued to race for the remainder of orientation. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep much that night – I tugged my hood tight, dug deep into my sleeping bag, and prayed that no rat or bug could reach me. But every time my hair brushed across my face, I imagined a bug was crawling on me and I spazzed out, jumped out of bed and repeated this process at least ten times before my body was physically exhausted and passed out.
I managed to get myself through orientation, but for the two weeks leading up to camp, I kept going back and forth about whether I really wanted to put myself through that again. How could they expect me to be responsible for 10 kids when I couldn’t even be responsible for myself?
I was {this close} to calling up my Head Counselor and telling her I developed some sort of a stomach flu. I had actually dialed 9 of the 10 digits. But then, I quickly hung up – I was scared to bail…I would have felt like the biggest flake ever. So I hung up. And decided to go through with it. And I am so glad I did.
Leave a Reply