The days prior to my solo experience were spent gathering all of the necessary resources for me to have a decent enough time. This included a cooler of water, two packages of pasta, an oatmeal packet, and trail mix packet, a few pieces of bread, salt and pepper, a tent, sleeping bag, matches, knife, and reading and cooking materials. The place that I chose to camp was in the Metropark woods in my grandfather’s backyard. I chose this spot because it was really the only suitable privately owned land in nature that I had access to. The first thing that I did when I got to my site was to put down the ground tarp and set up the tent. This took longer than expected because it is made to be assembled by two people at once and I put the rain fly on upside down and had to redo that. After that I organized all of my things in and around the tent, building a fire pit and placing the cooler of water next to it. Not wanting to begin reading just yet I got out my knife and decided to whittle a walking stick for when I was planning on hiking later. Then I sat at the edge of my tent for who knows how long beginning to read Into the Wild. Once I got tired of reading I went on a hike along the edge of this cliff next to my tent enjoying the sounds of nature and getting revitalized by the fresh air. Once I returned I gathered up some firewood and attempted to make a fire. This proved to be a much more difficult task than I thought because I kept on breaking matches or the wet wood would refuse to light. Even after gathering grapevine to add to the fire, it took awhile but eventually I got my pot of water to boil making pasta. I heartily ate my buttered pasta and bread with delight. There is something so refreshing about making food on a fire. After that, I continued to read until a bit after the sun went down. It was rather startling how fast it got dark one minute it is light the other dark. I went to bed nestled in my sleeping bag listening to the sound of crickets. The next morning I rose with the sun and got straight to reading. That is after having a breakfast of cold oatmeal, trail mix, and bread, all cold because I did not want to go through the hassle of starting another fire. The sounds of chirping birds were the constant backtrack to these moments in the woods and tent. After finishing the book I went outside and just walked around, enjoying simply being in nature. I went back to the tent feeling that my 24 hours must surely be up but however I was almost an hour early and played solitaire and looked at the various bugs between the rain fly and the tent until my parents arrived.
This solo experience was truly fascinating. It made me realize how much trust and time we put in technology and how important it is to just step back and take a break. And as much as my parents want me to say that I missed them while I was away I can’t say that I did. Even though they had done nothing bad it was simply extremely nice to just be alone. Another thing is that it was a truly bizarre but pleasant experience to not have any means but the sun to tell time. This meant that I had no schedule or prewritten order or time to do things. I just got to decide what I wanted to do and when I wanted to do it. If I could describe my experience with just one word it would be free. Free to make my own decisions and plans, and free to just enjoy nature's company and the company of a good book.
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