What I Learned Going Camping By Myself

When you start planning a camping trip, you probably begin by thinking about hiking, looking up camping breakfast recipes, packing the ingredients for s'mores dessert recipes, and humming some joyful campfire songs. Unfortunately for me, thinking through all of the aspects of camping in the wilderness gave me a bit of anxiety, so I starting doing a bit of research on camping statistics. According to the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, there were 503 reported tent injuries between 2010 and 2015. This information did not ease my anxiety, but I pushed forward knowing that this experience would be a positive life changer.

The idea of camping in an ultra-cool converted vintage Volkswagen Vanagon gave me enough confidence to at least do it for Instagram. For two nights, I was "roughing" it out in the Pacific Northwest wilderness (something I never thought I would be doing) and learning more about myself then ever before. Things like how to get food in the wilderness and how to turn on a portable heater were foreign to me. Camping by myself allowed me to experience more self-growth than I have had in quite awhile and because of it, I instantly became an outdoors person. Here are a few things I learned by going camping by myself: