Challenge. Accepted.

As some of you know, I recently returned from backpacking in Colordao. Yes, that’s right. I went backpacking. If you know me well (or know me even a little bit) you know that I am not an outdoorsy person and have camped a whole 2 times in my life. I know nothing about the outdoors except for the minimal knowledge I gained making a video about no trace camping in Environmental Science.

This all came to be when I met up with one of my YoungLife girls for a nice cup of coffee one evening. I had been trying to convince her to go to Colorado to go to Crooked Creek (a really sweet resort type thing) and she had other plans. She came in with the flyer, put it down in front of me and essentially told me that this is what we were doing instead. I agreed fairly easily and wasn’t sure why to be honest. The power of high schoolers is pretty intense stuff I guess. I agreed sometime around February I believe and we left at the end of July. That’s a lot of time for me to worry about a lot of things. And so I did.

I procrastinated in packing for as long as possible. I packed everything I would need an hour before we left. Why be prepared for something that scares the crap out of you? The months leading up for the trip, I tossed around jokes about how nervous I was and how much I really didn’t want to go, but knew in my heart that those weren’t jokes. I don’t take risks. I don’t accept challenges. And I don’t backpack. My mind was numb for most of the day as we were preparing to leave. If I don’t think about what I’m doing, I can’t freak out about it.

We loaded the bus for our lovely 24 hour bus ride. I’m all for road trips and can handle being in the car for long periods of time, but 24 hours is a little extreme. We were already playing games within the first hour of the trip…that’s bad news in my mind. I like to wait as long as I can to be so bored that I need things to entertain myself with. Not with this group. We played games, we talked, we laughed until we cried (well until I cried), and we slept some.

 *Note. We have THE BEST YoungLife kids. I could not have been more proud to be their leader. More to come on that.

I’ll summarize the entire trip because I could go on and on with details about our week. We whitewater rafted on Monday which was something I also never thought I would do. I did it. And I took the harder of the two options and survived it. We paddled 10 miles down the Arkansas River with our new best friend, Jay. I was with my 3 girls who were on the trip. We didn’t let the boys go with us mostly because I wanted to be successful without them! The next day, we loaded up our packs and headed out on the trail for our 4 day adventure. It was an adventure. I have never felt more challenged, exhausted, frustrated, or excited in my life. The scenery was beautiful…obviously. We hiked to the top of a mountain and back down in one day, we went through rivers, we went over fields of rocks, and through forests.

Here’s where I brag about how great our group was. There were 3 girls, 6 guys, a female guide, a male guide, Luke and myself. There was not one river, large rock, fallen tree, or any other obstacle that I had to cross by myself. There was constantly one of our guys asking who needed help, what they could do, and generally making sure that we were ok. The group as a whole was respectful, open, and honest. We were all broken together and gained so much from one another. Speaking for myself, I just made 10 new really great friends on this trip. I feel blessed to know them and be in their lives.

I learned a lot about myself over the week. I can do things that scare the crap out of me. I spend a lot of time telling myself negative things. “I can’t do it.” “I won’t make it.” “I’m not athletic enough for this.” The list goes on and on. Here’s the truth. It doesn’t hurt to give it a try. I may not be at the front of the pack. I may not go as quickly as everyone else. And I might need to stop 72 times when we are going uphill. But here is the moral…I made it. I did it. I accomplished a number of things I never thought I could.

So thank you Gillian. Thank you Jessica. Thank you Megan. Thank you for opening up to me and teaching me things about myself that I couldn’t have learned without you. Thanks for letting me into your lives and giving me the chance to grow with you. I am so proud of the 3 of you. You are all beautiful young ladies with so many great things in your future.

And thank you boys…Jonah, Tyler, Bjorn, Timmy, Tommy, and Nate. Thank you for doing such a great job taking care of all of us. Thank you for the respect that you have for people and your love for life. Keep taking on the challenges of life and conquering them.