Training Camp was far from easy. In fact it was probably one of the toughest weeks of my life. Here are ten things that I had no choice but to learn from camp.
1. What is showering? No idea. I didn’t do it all week. There were “bucket showers”, if you love standing in a tiny wooden shack, and pouring freezing cold water on top of your head, these were for you! Personally I just decided to wash my hair under the hose a few times and pretend that I was clean.
2. Eating with your hands is totally normal. We had to eat every meal family style with 7 other strangers and we didn’t get plates or silverware. After working out, hiking, not showering, sweating, and being covered in dirt the last thing I want to do is stick my hands in a pile of food that everyone else has already stuck their hands in, and eat it. By the end of the week I was so hungry that I no longer cared. My fingers became spoons and strangers became family.
3. Chacos are the greatest shoes ever made….except for when you’re going for a 30 minute run on gravel. Don’t get me wrong, I live in my chacos. But when you get woken up at 6am to go for a thirty minute run and the only shoes you have are chacos you get these awesome blisters in the arches of your feet that haunt you all week.
4. Nobody cares. So just, no. I would like to announce that I am never wearing makeup again. It was awesome to not have to do my makeup or my hair all week. No one cared. Because no one else did their hair or makeup either. I didn’t have to hide behind some fake mask I was putting on every morning for people to like me. I was just me, straight up, no makeup, ratty hair, dirty, me. And I’ve already made the most amazing friends.
5. Losing people is hard. Now I didn’t need training camp to teach me this but I learned that you can lose people you haven’t even really gotten to know and it is still so hard. We had to give up 11 people from our squad to other squads. After months of talking online and trying to get to know each other we get to camp and they tell us that 11 people must go. We are all sitting there nervous and anxious. A couple people volunteered to go to other squads but when people stopped volunteering they starting drawing names out of a bowl. It was so upsetting to me to see these people go. It was very emotional and sad but we knew it had to happen and God was calling them else where. When the 11 people were gone we all went all hunger games on everyone and held up three fingers and made the dooo dooo doo doooooo noise in honor of them. (If you have seen hunger games you know exactly what I’m talking about).
6. Don’t forget about The Holy Spirit. I always do. I always just pray to God and thats it. The Holy Spirit needs some lovin too. All week I got to see the Holy Spirit working. I saw him speak to people through song, illustrations, and pictures. I saw hearts heal, I saw eyes heal, and I saw relationships heal. I was calling upon the Holy Spirit to heal something in me. I didn’t really know what I was expecting him to heal in me I just knew I needed some healing. After a while of praying and listening and talking I saw a very clear picture come to me. I saw myself sitting in my bedroom at my old house and I was looking down at my legs. I had carved the word “broken” into my right upper thigh. I was crying. I then saw a hand (Jesus hand) out of no where sweep across my leg slowly and carefully and when the hand was gone so was the word. My leg was healed. I looked up puzzled and saw my mother standing there. She was holding the baby me. She looked more beautiful than I had ever seen her. She was rocking me and saying, “My sweet madison, I love you.” When I opened my eyes I just started balling. I knew that my relationship with my mom was broken in the past and it was about time I let go of that and remember that she loved me and that I will always be her “sweet madison.” I immediately text my mom telling her what happened. She responded with a picture of a beautiful double rainbow and said ” As I was praying to the holy spirit today for you this rainbow literally appeared! I fell to the ground and wept!” It was amazing that this all happened at the same time. Man is God good.
7. Be uncomfortable on purpose. Let me start by saying, bucket showers, eating with my hands, living in a tent, being away from home, being with 300 strangers….yah none of that is comfortable. I had to learn to purposely put myself in uncomfortable situations. And when I put myself there, I got the greatest things out of it! I met so many new people, I actually liked to not have to shower, when your hungry it doesn’t matter if you have silver ware you just eat! And those strangers have quickly become my teammates and my closet friends. Nothing worth having comes easy. And I don’t want this to be easy, I need it to be hard. It is all going to be so worth it in the end.
8. In the real world we are told to be guarded, in world race world we are taught to be vulnerable and open. Its so important to get to know your team and the people you will be living with for a year. Its important when making teams you find out who you work well with and who you don’t. Who is going to grow you and who is not. Who is going to be my future bridesmaids and who…just kidding…maybe. This experience is not supposed to be one where we are guarded. Everyone loves everyone and this is my new family and new community. Be open, be vulnerable, knock down those walls.
9. The “Airport” is my favorite bedroom. You may be wondering why I put airport in quotes. Well thats because we got to stay at the fake airport one night. We all smushed into a small freezing room, with the lights on, sounds of airplanes and people talking and we all slept on the floor. Now I know that doesn’t sound very glamourous but believe me it was. We got to sleep indoors, since we were all smushed in there it wasn’t to cold, and there was a real bathroom there! I love the airport.
10. I could not be more excited for The World Race. On the way to camp Ill be honest, I was freaking out. This was by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It was cold, it was wet, I had a 103 degree fever for three days, I didn’t sleep, I barely ate, and I couldn’t shower. But, I have never learned so much about myself in one week in my whole life. I learned so much about myself, about others, about the Holy Spirit, teamwork, community, sharing, love, and friendship. Training camp has me so amped up. Im on the worlds greatest squad and have the world greatest team and I can not wait to do this for 11 months.
N SQUAD FOR LIFE! #WonderingWonderers #UnicornsBreath
