I’m pleased to announce that I have survived the 11 days of training camp! My apologies for not updating my blog sooner. Timing wise, I am about 2 weeks away from launch! I, along with my squad of 40 other racers, am so excited for launch on August 5, 2016! In the spirit of #11in11, I’ll share with y’all 11 realizations/lessons I’ve learned in those 11 days of training camp!
- “Building” my temporary home and packing my life in less than 10 minutes is possible! Prior to training camp, I’ve only set up and torn down my tent once and wondered how I would pack and then repack my life in my trusty 65L Osprey. Turns out that when you practice daily, packing your life – including your “home” – is possible in less than 10 minutes! Bonus if the tent is dry when it’s packed. Even more of a bonus when your stakes are still straight-ish when they are removed from the ground!
The green REI tent in the middle was my temporary home.
- I feel invincible when I’m in my tent. Living in a tent was probably what I dreaded the most about training camp; while camping is enjoyment to most people, I turn on my survival mode at the first thought of the outdoors. The first night sleeping in the tent was nerve-wrecking especially when a dog barked around the campsite and the barking got louder as he entered our campsite. As the camp progressed, my tent slowly became my only personal space. As an ambivert, I need my “Vivian Time” every so often and that’s hard to find in community living. Just visually not seeing others already created that space. Also, when I felt like I was being bitten alive or when it was raining, I felt like nothing could get to me once I was in the tent. My tent slowly became my safe haven, as long as the doors were zipped and the rain cover was on.
- Showering is a luxury. The only showering option in camp was a cold bucket shower. That meant we could fill up a 5-gallon bucket with cold water; with a plastic measuring cup, you could figure out how to wash yourself thoroughly and sparingly. That awkward moment when you either run out of water while there was still soap/shampoo on you or when you decide to dump the last of your water over your head but forgot to keep your clean clothes away from the area; your clean clothes then become your wet clothes! To make it even better, when it’s consistently in the 90s, you will start sweating pretty much before you even finish putting on your hopefully still dry clothes, which makes this very thrilling experience feel almost pointless. In short, I took about 2 showers in 2 weeks. When I told this to a coworker, this was her response the next day….
- Don’t trust anyone who says it will not rain; always build a roof of some sort! During our squad camp out, we were given a few tarps and were told to build your team shelter for the night. We got lazy and only put the tarp on the bottom and not overhead because they, and AccuWeather, said it won’t be raining. Well, halfway through dinner, there was a torrential downpour. Turns out making decisions and tying a tarp up in the rain sucks a lot even though that brought our squad closer.
- The Packaging Essentials to Outdoor Living – [for future Vivian at Launch and future racers] – Baby wipes, Febreeze/scented dryer sheets/both, tons of zip lock bags, head lamp, multiple carabiners, rain jacket, paracord, head buff, Leatherman tool, duck tape, quick-dry towel…etc.
- Slow yourself to encourage others! In order to launch, we had to complete a 3-mile hike in less than 50 minutes with our big pack as our physical test. Of course, it started off on an incline. We split ourselves into smaller groups based on the speed we intended to go. Before the hike, our speaker, Hope, challenged us – especially speaking to us overachievers – to not look at this as “who can complete the task the quickest” but rather “how we can be alongside someone who may be struggling, encourage them, and help them to achieve the goal”. This hike was not easy but in the process, I got to know one of the women who is now on my team at launch! We both ended up running the last segment with our pack and made it back to our starting line with 1 minute to spare – what an adrenaline rush!
- Vulnerability and the Power of “Me Too” – Going into training camp, I thought I was in a good place for a 24-year-old – I have great people around me, great family, great job (at least for a few more weeks). Well, the first few sessions wrecked me; we focused on self – identity, pain, emotions, shame… just to name a few. It makes sense why we have to go through the exercises ourselves but that was the first time I had to process so many things that I’ve gotten good at ignoring over the years. To make it even harder, we had to talk about it! No one enjoys talking about how imperfect they are (at least I don’t). I thought that since I just met these people for the first time in my life few days ago, they either don’t care or would judge me. Shockingly, over and over again, the response I received was “me too” and that carried so much weight. While it may be a struggle, it brought us closer as darkness was brought to light and we all realized that we weren’t going through any of this alone!
- Community is intentional. Physically being in a group and sharing life in a community is different. A true community is intentional and it comes with the good, the bad, and the ugly. As part of the race, we had an exercise where we had the opportunity to say YES to the journey ahead of us, say YES to our squad, and say YES to our leadership team. Someone captured the moment after we all handed in our YES… Quite precious!
- Women are strong too! At the women’s conference, I realized that my value of success was skewed. Growing up, whether it was playing sports or going through college, I was constantly competing alongside men. In my mind, I realized that my view of success was to be able to play on the same level as the men. I pride myself in being the only woman in most of my groups of friends. In Renee’s message, she revealed that women are designed to have deep relationships. We are the life bringers, which make us incredibly influential and vulnerable at the same time. The women conference changed how I view other women and myself. As my squad is primarily made up of women, part of me knew before going into training camp that I will end up in an all-women team because that was what I wanted least! I am proud to share with you the team of women that I will launch with this coming August! Meet Team Twined by the Vine! I’m beyond excited to share life with these ladies as we go on our journey in the next 11 months! [Left to Right: Diamond, Gracie, Emily Holland, McCrea, Liz, Emily McIver, me]
- There will be many “areas of growth”! I am such a task-oriented person, not so much a people-person. On this trip, the primary focus is people – whether they will be children, women, non-english speakers – all people related! When we were in the children ministry session, someone asked the leadership team a question – “What if I don’t like children?”. She paused and her answer was, “Well, then it’s an area of growth”. That answer really annoyed me but after reflecting upon that, I realized that her answer applies to literally the next 11 months. Pretty much everything I will come across will be areas of growth. It will be uncomfortable and awkward but that will be OK. There is beauty in the struggle and growth. I’m so excited how much my squad, my team, and I will grow in all of this!
- I am no longer a slave to fear because I am a child of God. Upon my announcement that I have committed to my route, I met up with a former counselor for the camp I used to work at for dinner. There, we had a chance to catch up and I had the opportunity to share about my trip. At the end of dinner when she walked me to the train station, she turned and said (paraphrasing here) that my attitude has changed so much since she last saw me (the summer going into my junior year of college). Then, this line jumped out at me – “Vivian, I don’t see you as a woman who is afraid. I want you to take the word “fear” out of your vocabulary because you really are not afraid”. That line stuck with me and resurfaced time and time again since then, especially at training camp. Not only acknowledging it but also declaring it has already started the process of healing, hope, and freedom! Thinking about the race and the life in the next 11 months may be daunting but I am beyond excited to create space for God to do what He would not otherwise have space to do. People may think that I am crazy for leaving a nice full-time job and the comfort of home to make my life harder; I truly believe that He will give us immeasurably more than what we leave behind!
Meet the rest of iSquad!
All PC goes to my squadmates!
