You know you’re about to go on the World Race when…
• You have repeating dreams about training camp.
• You have at least 20 notifications a day from your squad’s fb group page.
• Free time is spent looking up gear and prices.
• You are scared out of your pants and excited over the moon at the exact same time.
• People you haven’t even met become your family (R Squad shout out!!)
• God completely shows up in visible ways throughout your life to show you that you are exactly where you should be!
• Everything you do or talk about can be related back to the Race…everything!
• Fundraising, fundraising, fundraising.
• You have repeating dreams about being in other countries.
• You only buy stuff that can easily be packed in your pack.
• REI has become a top website on your most visited pages.
• You spend hours (upon hours) watching videos and reading blogs of current and alumni Racers (thanks for all the wisdom!)
• When you see a globe or image of the world you get excited.
• You feel connected to anything with an 11 in it.
• You don’t shower for 3 days and justify that as WR prep!
• Everyday feels like Christmas when you receive boxes with gear that you ordered!
• At every holiday you think to yourself (or aloud) where you will be the following year.
• You drive a total of 4.5 hours through a blizzard to meet and hang out with squadmates for 4 hours (no really, that happened!)
• You wonder how you are going to pack everything and fit it all in your pack!
• You check your fundraising account way too often…5+ times in 1 day…yep, I did that…
• You decide not to kill all the insects that cross your path because you know there will be much worse at some point in the next year.
• You have list after list after list after list and so on and so forth of stuff you have to get, stuff you need to pack, stuff you want to pack but can do without, things to do, stuff to research, etc.
• You pitch a tent in your house/apartment/room…we’ve all done it…
• You try to justify bringing your snuggie, but there’s just no space. (It’s multi-purpose: robe, blanket, cape, skirt, towel, hammock, pillow.)
• Squad Wars!!!!!
• The smaller and more lightweight a thing is the more you love it!
• You share with your squad exciting things that happened in your day before your actual family.
• You decide to do uncomfortable things because you need to get use to being outside your comfort zone.
• You have countdowns to training camp and launch even though you don’t have specific dates.
• You have a love/hate relationship with the idea of launch.
• Your Google search history is how to pack a backpack for a year, where to find the best gear deals, uses of tea tree oil, and differences between down and synthetic sleeping bags…just to name a few.
• You can count the weeks left in the states with 2 hands.
• God blows up your squad with some amazing testimonies!
17 days until training camp and only 60 some days until launch! Crazy! It’s getting more real by the day.
