Camp

I better start sewing name tags in my clothes, because this week I’m going to Bike Camp. Whether you’re a kid or an adult, going to camp evokes a mixed set of angst-ridden emotions. Will I fit in? Will everybody laugh at me? What if I do something stupid? Will I wish I hadn’t gone? Will I find a friend?

I think camp is really a metaphor for life, and life is all about trying new things. What would life be like without change and new adventures? We all do hard and scary things – getting on that bus for the first day of school, auditioning for plays, applying to colleges, dating, marriage. All things we enter into with mixed emotions. Yet, if we didn’t do them, our lives would be the poorer for it. Of course things will go wrong, but so what? Well will do stupid things. We might not fit in. And sometimes people will laugh at us. But that shouldn’t stop us from trying something new.

Look back at your life. What could possible go wrong that has not already happen? I’ve already fallen off my bike while still attached to it – pretty stupid I know, and survived. I’ve also biked Lake Shore Drive at dawn and pedaled across Beaver Island to see the sunset because I dared to challenge myself to do something new, scary and hard.

So dare to be adventurous today. Try something new. Fly a kite on the beach. Go back to school. Run a marathon. Take a typing class. Join a book group. Volunteer at a soup kitchen. Or start sewing labels in your clothes and go to bike camp.

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