Recently I made a blog on how training camp revealed so many things to me about how I personally handled things in my life. Even though training camp was tough at some points (and I explained that in my last blog), it was SO FUN and an experience I will forever be thankful for.
I wanted to share some super fun things that happened at training camp and also share some things that I was insanely thankful for while I was there- things that in my normal life would’ve been really miniscule.
1. Pastries for breakfast on day 2. Basically my whole squad could tell you how happy those things made me. We got soup for breakfast on day 1 so pastries were not what I was expecting and tears of joy were almost shed.
2. TWO Hershey’s kisses. When the boys were gone on their “man hike” the ladies were treated with chocolate in the form of two small Hershey’s kisses. It was the greatest day ever.
3. Bucket showers. The ONLY time I wasn’t sweating the entire time. Although it made me seriously consider cutting all my hair, I was so thankful.
4. Peanut butter. One day one of my squadmates pulled out a jar of peanut butter and I knew that I could make it through the week from that point on. Seriously though, in most pics I find from training camp I am eating peanut butter.
5. Porta-potties being emptied. Y’all, all I know is one day I was sitting at the dining tent and then all the sudden I hear people cheering and look up to see a big truck emptying out those things. SO THANKFUL.
6. Andre’s cologne. Everyone smelled so bad (sorry guys) and we were all sitting in our hammocks and Andre comes out of his tent smelling like pure HEAVEN. Pretty sure he sprayed every one of us, girls included.
7. Cards. I don’t think I have ever laughed so hard (thanks Kaela).
8. Sweet tea on the day out. When we got to go out as a team, I had sweet tea for the first time in 9 days. So needed but also made me realize I might be a little addicted.
9. Colton getting up at 3am to keep the fire going. One day we went off campus and had a “camp out”. AKA- us and a tarp. It got so cold and Colton stayed up all night keeping the fire going. When he woke up he thought that it was around 6am so he stayed up, turns out it wasn’t but I was extra grateful for him not being able to tell the time.
10. The lake. During our “camp out” we got to swim in the lake. I was running on two days without a bucket shower (or something like that) and jumping in the lake made me feel SO CLEAN.
11. Winning the squad dance off. E Squad definitely has the best moves. Hands down.
12. Swing dancing. Okay if you don’t know how to swing dance, please try it. I mean I still don’t know how but the other people on my squad took the lead on that part.
13. Praying, world race style. One night, the Lord was MOVING in my squad. So the devil was doing his best to stop that. We stood in the middle of our camp and people that were struggling came in the middle and we all put our hands on them and everyone prayed at the same time. So. Cool.
14. Sleeping under the stars. This was probably my favorite night from camp, we just all slept on the sidewalk together and looked at the stars and got super excited when we started thinking about doing this in Africa.
15. When you actually were provided with plates/silverware. This was so helpful because we didn’t have to use and clean our own mess kits. Or use our hands.
Those are just some of the things that brought me so much joy at training camp. Hopefully that gives some of you a little bit of insight at what went down while I was there. But in all honestly, there are no words to describe those ten days in the woods. It’s just something you have to experience to understand. Thanks E Squad for some of these ideas and thanks for the memories. Can’t wait to make a more!
Ps- 18 days ladies and gents. It’s getting real.
