This I Believe...

I believe that life should never be taken too seriously and that you should laugh and learn from your mistakes.  I am grounding my belief in a story from this last summer, during which I had one of the best experiences of my entire life at a Young Life camp in Malibu, Canada.  But this camp was not all fun for me, particularly the first night.  I had been up for a good twenty hours straight and I am not the kind of person who does well on limited amounts of sleep, especially when you want me to crawl in mud and roll around in dirt at midnight in the forest (where there are plenty of things to trip on and twist your ankles).  While all my group members happily (and annoyingly to me…) exclaimed their profound love for being filthy, I clenched my jaw, bit my tongue, and ran through the obstacle course.  This brought me straight to the freaking freezing cold ocean that is off the fjord.  I was about as ready to punch a hole through a wall as a boy with teen angst and, after jumping in the balmy sixty degree water, I shoved my way to the ladder to lift myself out of the dirt and sweat tinged water surrounding me.  I speed walked back to my cabin, leaving my teammates dripping and hugging. 

                I didn’t know if I was more frustrated that I had to actually do the obstacle course, or because of my sudden attitude change.  Man, I got in that small shower cubicle in my cabin, and pretty much scrubbed my skin harder than any other time in my entire life: Canadian dirt is stubborn stuff.  When I got out, I knew I would have to apologize, but with all group’s prickly stares that prodded at my skin, I turned incredibly warm and fell asleep quickly.  The next morning, I made it my business/mission to apologize for my snippy attitude.  As much as I want to say I regret my meltdown, I don’t.  It taught me the lesson to never go into anything assuming it is going to be sucky.  There are going to be things you don’t want to do in life, but you might as well have fun doing them! J  And, dammit, laugh at yourself when you make dumb mistakes, it is always the people who are able to laugh at tripping, or spilling water on their crotch areas, etc., that are happiest in life: that I believe.