Toto, I Don't Think We're in Kansas Anymore

Hey guys!  Yet again, I'm sorry for my blog absence.  I don't really have a good reason this time, but I'm back!  Right now I am starting my Christmas break, and I keep going back and forth on if I will keep trying to post over these weeks or just wait until I get back, so feel free to check back, or just wait until the middle of January and read what you (may or may not have) missed.

Also, a shameless bit of "hey look, that's me!"  One of my past posts is now on the blog for my camp's website!  If you want to read my post again, you can check it out here: http://www.campranchoframasa.org/blog  Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled blog programming.

I wouldn't call myself a world traveler by any means, but I have lived in several different places over the past few years, and I can confidently say that camp is like exactly none of them.  I went to school in the middle of St. Louis, Missouri, basically the opposite of where I am right now.  There are times when I'm at camp where I think, "I can't believe this time last year I was in St. Louis."  Here's a taste of some of those moments:

• The first time I almost hit a deer with my car
• When I found out that the only two chain restaurants in town are a McDonald's and a Subway, and the nearest Chipotle is 30 minutes away
• When I started using my brights with quite a bit of regularity when I drive at night because there aren't streetlights on the backcountry road where I live
• When I realized one of the greatest threats on my life has become falling black walnuts
• When it's not really worth going in to town after 5 because that's when all of the stores close
• When I run into tourists at the park or in town, and they ask where I'm from, and I get to say, "Actually, I live here"
• When I realized that the light pollution is so low that I can see the Milky Way on a clear night
• When I walk in certain parts of camp after it snows and there are more deer tracks than human footprints
• When I'm waiting for a group to come in at the bridge and I wave to everyone who passes, and they all wave back
• When the tallest structure in town is the fire observation tower in the park
• When I had to actually keep track of when deer season started, so I could be more cautious when I'm in the woods

I loved living in St. Louis, and I love living here, and I love that they're so different.  I feel like it gives me perspective, something that I constantly try to attain and refine.  That's pretty much the only advice I feel qualified to give: keep learning, keep doing new things!

 

(Left) part of my college campus in St. Louis, and (Right) the camp office