Camp Legs

Before I started this job, I never really thought about my legs very much.  Sure, they're pretty long because I'm a tall person, and they get me from place to place, but that was about it.  Since I've come to camp, my legs have become an endless source of fascination for me, and a topic of conversation way more often than what is probably considered normal.  You might think, "Oh, Lauren walks around at camp a lot, her legs must be getting in really good shape."  Nope.  In fact, it's mostly the opposite.  My legs are getting stronger, but mostly my legs look like I've been in a fight.  What used to be a blank canvas is now a topographical map scattered with mysterious bruises, multiple bug bites, tan lines, and scratches from various plants and falls.  Which is exactly why they're so interesting.  Whenever I see my legs now, one of my favorite quotes comes to mind,

"Maybe life isn’t about avoiding the bruises.  Maybe it’s about collecting the scars to prove we showed up for it."

Oh hello, slip-n-slide scar and giant mystery bruise

The injuries themselves aren't interesting to me, but the stories behind them.  There's the three-inch scar on my knee from when I went down a slip-n-slide and fell into a concrete drainage ditch my first week at work.  There's the mosquito bites from when we did a school visit and the bugs were way worse than they ever are at camp.  There's the thorn scratches from when we did Challenge Lunch and we had to trek straight through a thorn patch or we would lose our heading.  There's the bruises on my shin from when I misjudged my jump out of the Gaga Pit and nearly faceplanted into the dirt.  These are my tattoos, these are the marks that I have earned from living my camp life, and I absolutely love it.