"My Favorite Part About Camping." by Vanessa G.S. Nelson

I love the beach. I love the walks. I love the campfire where we sing show-tunes and pop songs (Go Spice Girls!!). I love the company. The relaxation. I love the sunny afternoons and the mellow evenings. I love the sun going down and the crickets coming out. I love Michelle chopping wood. I love making crappy camp food such as bush pies and Zoodles.
But there's something about the mornings. I actually get to see them. This is my favorite part. There's no dingy, disorienting basement room with no windows, to keep me in bed longer than I should be. You fall asleep to the laughter of your companions, and awake to the sun entirely flooding your tent. Or maybe it's the unbearable tent-absorbed heat that pries you out of your sleeping bag and makes you flee to the outdoors. Or sometimes it's the sound of playing children that lifts your eyelids and makes you feel like shouting "Shut up!!" every time you hear a tone-call: "You can't catch me!" But whatever it is that happens to get me up, I don't mind.
Sometimes everyone wakes up around the same time. This is cool. Other times I awake to find that everyone else is still snoring, and I quietly leave the tent for the solitude and comfort of the calm outdoors. I don't mind being the only one up. There's so much peace and joy to be out in nature, away from the demands of work or parents. A morning walk, or a morning song takes the place of the traffic buzz. Time doesn't exist out here. There is no schedule, no drone or routine that makes me reluctant to start the day.
I can't sleep in when I'm camping. And I love that.

Here's to this summer, and the camping trips to come, with old companions and new.

-Don't bother having a fight when you're camping. Slamming the tent flap just isn't satisfying. Or so I'm told, in not-so-many words.

NostalgicNess