This type of debacle was common for me as a Pioneer. For thirty days, I lived deep in the woods of Pennsylvania with almost nothing but what the Earthearth provided and daily challenges that tested my positivity. At first, I wondered how I could survive with a trickle of lukewarm water as a shower and a refrigerator waymuch too small for twenty people to share. In order to eat, I had to work. With others, I createdbuilt an oven by collecting and layering rocks in a semi-circle and then slathering them with mud. Cooking each meal required 60 minutes of hard preparation, with. jobs assigned to each Pioneer – collecting wood, gathering ingredients, stoking the oven’s fire, and rowing back and forth across the lake to dispose of waste. No job was easy. But by working in a team, I felt like I could accomplish anything. But firstFirst, however, I had to face my own battles.
On the first day, eager to start working, I loaded my arms with wood until I couldn’t fit another twig into my grasp. I dropped my collection into the pile, thinking my task was done, but was quickly told that to sustain a fire, I hadwould have to gather about twenty times the amount of wood I had collected to sustain a fire. Tasks such as this encouraged me to dig deep inside myself and find the perseverance and confidence to push past what I thought I was capable of doing. I let go of all expectations and followed my journey into the unfamiliar, eager to fuel my hunger for new experiences.