I spend my summers staffing at a wilderness camp based in Vermont. Along with several young girls and a co-staff, I lead canoeing and hiking trips located within the Northeast and Canada. While this isn’t an internship at Google, I honestly wouldn’t want anything else. I was a camper for nine years before starting on staff last summer; the wilderness is a second home for me, and I hope others can appreciate why. Below are 40 reasons I love the woods:
- Fresh air unpolluted by car exhaust
- I feel like Hatchet from the book “Hatchet”
- Strong women supporting strong girls
- Food always tastes better after hiking eight miles
- The ground underneath the tent feels soft when you’re sore and sleep deprived
- A break from society
- No depressing news updates concerning the current U.S. government
- Wool socks are my best friends
- The sound of rain on a nylon tent is peaceful and serene
- The sound of rain on raincoats while paddling in the middle of a lake is less serene, but I’ll take it over thunder
- Your clothes smell smoky from the campfire
- If you put your wet socks by the fire, they get dry and warm
- When it rains during meal time, you can all snuggle underneath the tarp
- Campers love when you can show them you how far you’ve gone on the map
- You know you’re partially guessing on where you are on the map
- Your iPhone’s compass app works even on airplane mode
- If the wind is in your favor while canoeing, you can hold onto each other’s boats and “sail” down the lake instead of paddling
- When I was 13, we were floating down a river with a strong current, and one of my staff read “Harry Potter” to us for three hours
- Rest Day’s pancake breakfast!
- You always eat the tastiest dinner (Annie’s Mac ‘n’ Cheese) after the hardest day
- Receiving handwritten letters from friends back home
- Finding the perfect two trees to set up your hammock between
- Dipping your cap in the lake when it’s hot and putting it back on
- Striking a match on a rock makes you feel cool
- Watching a float plane land on the water with your resupply
- Even the tough parts make for good stories
- My Common App essay was a story from my 28-day canoe trip in northwestern Quebec in which my boat sank
- Running rapids in canoes is exhilarating
- The sunburns are worth it
- You can all sing really loudly, and no one can hear you
- One time, a kind, old French-Canadian couple caught my crew fish for dinner
- If you have to wake up early, you can see the sunrise and the morning fog clear off the water
- Carrying everything on your own back makes you feel self-sufficient and capable (because you are)
- Carrying a canoe on your back on a narrow trail through the woods is very fulfilling. Painful, but fulfilling.
- You always end stronger than you began, physically and emotionally
- If you burn a dead branch from a pine tree, it sends little fireworks up into the air
- You realize time is a human construct
- It’s fun to tell campers that fact when they ask whether it’s time to stop paddling
- Having a camper tell you they now love the woods makes every rainy day worth it
- Friendships are forged in the tears of long days and burnt marshmallows.
Contact Nina at ngknight ‘at’ stanford.edu.