Well, I taught the wilderness survival class that I mentioned last time. I’m definitely not the person you would think is great at wilderness survival when you look at me. I live in a fancy suburban town and I sort of always have. I went to college at Boston University, which is likely the least wilderness college in the universe. I should be a city slicker. The only thing is that I was a Boy Scout, I road my motorcycle in all 50 states, and I camped a lot. Also, my kids were in Scouts and all three are Eagle Scouts. I was quite involved in scouting.
So, when I joined the Adventureman’s Guild and found out they had a merit badge process, I asked if they needed me to teach the Wilderness Survival merit badge. I had taught it to dozens of scouts, so why not these guys. They said “Yes!” and we planned the event.
A few of the Adventuremen are going on a Monkey bike trip in October so I invited those guys to come to wilderness training while testing out their bikes on a fun ride. A dozen people signed up and 8 people completed the requirements for their badge. The hardest part was you had a to build an emergency shelter and spent the entire night in it. A few guys didn’t want to do that, so we ended up with 8 success stories.
There were other things we accomplished as well. Of the 12 people I only knew three others well and I had met three more. By the end we were all buds, so I really made 8 new friends in 24 hours. It was great. Unlike Boy Scouts when the Adventuremen do survival training we had a couple of beers and we could make decisions on the fly without needing permission. It was a great weekend.
So, my lesson learned here is that if you can teach a little something, give it a try. There is opportunity to make friends, have fun, and experience something new.