lol I know the title is a little cliche. But honestly Training camp was a week that makes me so excited and eager to experience all the weeks to come with the amazing people God has crafted me to be with, and it was an awesome week to start this world race year. It truly was a week to govern the weeks to come.
I had not read any blogs about training camp, so i didn’t anticipate any of the challenges, or know what was coming, but from previous training with Adventures i thought i had an idea of a few of the maneuvers that would happen, but man o man all my ideals were blown out the window. Camp was so much physically and emotionally harder than i was prepared for. it was awesome.
Physically they pushed us. but in such an awesome way. I felt exhausted everyday. but not tired. the kind of exhausted that we should all feel at the end of the day, from making an intentional effort, from being physically involved and proactive everyday; doing dishes, carrying our packs up and down hills, carrying people up and down hills, doing an exercise everyday, offering physical help to the people around you. The greatest kind of exhausted where you can lay down on the ground in a tent a fall asleep instantly, without having to play an iphone game, or watch a couple episodes of netflix. I wasn’t tired. I didn”t feel like i was missing out on sleep or lacking in anyway. I felt energetic, and the energy was coming straight from God’s joy and spirit. I appreciated the circumstances that were provided for us so much, even through the constant pouring sweat and dirt, i felt cleaner than i have in awhile.
Emotionally i think i can say we were all in a weird place when we showed up for training camp. either not knowing how we were feeling, feeling conflicted about leaving friends and family, or like me feeling a plethora of every emotion everyday (which is not the norm for me)! i was feeling so sad about leaving my ‘family’ because i was feeling so much uncontrollable love for those people in realizing that i was going to miss them. feeling so nervous about the race and at the same time so excited! ugh so much happening inside my head. But training solidified all of those things into pure justification about the Race. So much peace about the family i have here in america and them staying”behind” and the New family i am so excited to start the next international year.
I think my biggest fear in going on the race was the group of people i would be going with. traveling together is one of the most stressful factors in friendships, and i was so nervous about any rift or conflict coming, which will happen duh! but who cares! God has put together the most perfect team and squad for each one of us and i seriously mean that. Our squad has so much love for each other after about the first 30 hours of meeting, and our teams have already shown so much incredible sanctity, and divine pairing its crazy. i will definitely talk more in detail about these most amazing 42+ people i can invite into my family but for now know that God is so good and i am so ready to head out September 5th and i am so ready to be exhausted everyday!
2 blessed 2 be stressed! 😉
