Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Dear Members of the Fortress,

It is 70° and sunny out, and as I sit on my back porch from the comfort of my home, with two nights in my comfortable bed under my belt and a few home cooked meals, I feel in no position to blog about The Fortress. It has been a couple of lazy days: sitting around the house with my family, embarrassing myself at a round of golf, and enjoying playing my guitar loud enough without worrying about disturbing the dorm mates, but yet again, it is sitting at home that makes me miss those cold nights trying to sleep way too close to the eleven of you.

And those were my favorite nights: what was known “Black Tenting.” I thought I knew ya’ll pretty well before tenting, but who was I kidding. Ya’ll are nuts (shout out to the squirrels) and will undoubtedly continue to surprise me over the next few years. I can definitely say that the decision to “Black Tent” was one of (if not the best) the finest decisions I have ever made. I keep using scare quotes here, because I am still uncertain while they called it black tenting. It was what, four extra nights? And the most fun nights at that? Maybe it was because we weren’t allowed to have a tent, but I would take The Fortress over The Bastion any day or night. Cameron, that Home Depot trip could not have gone better. Between the 10 friendly people that helped us out, and the 12 of us putting that thing together, The Fortress is pretty hard to beat. I still remember that second night, looking out at the other tarps falling apart, and realizing that tornado our not, our Fortress would still be there in the morning.

With all of my faith in the Fortress, I am upset at myself forever doubting our group. When we started I felt for sure that someone was going to get sick, be overwhelmed with school or extracurricular activities and dropout from our tent. I had no idea who it would be, and in the back of my head I kept questioning myself for what I was getting into, but by the second week or so I realized that we were all in this for good. Like The Fortress, none of us was going to give up. I must say I’m a little surprised at myself for making it through.

I have so many small moments and memories that made the past month and a half worth it. These are the stories I’m going to remember that will bring a smile to my face, and make me want to tent again. It’s like this: as I said I embarrassed myself playing golf yesterday, but once, after I made a putt (probably the only hole that I putted less than 3 or 4 times), my dad told my quote that his mom always said when she played golf. “That will bring ‘em out tomorrow!” No matter the hundred bad shots, the next day I’ll always remember the 5 good ones. When I think about tenting, I’m not going to remember the bad days of being sick, or the cold or the rain, but I’m going to remember the fun we had playing bananagrams, staying up way too late talking, saying hi to the players as they walked by, or painting Coach K’s birthday sign. There are so many of these memories that I cannot possibly list them all.

I guess now I must respond to the complaint of why then, if I can’t tell all of these stories, did I not blog from the beginning. I guess I have no real excuse; it probably is a pride thing. Having not blogged, I had to wait to the opportune moment or have the perfect story to tell. To be honest, that story never came. Even after the game (which was unbelievably amazing – we definitely had the best spot in Cameron) I couldn’t come up with any spectacular story to tell. It wasn’t until I got home and have been away from you and missing you guys that I felt as if I should finally blog.

You guys are awesome, and I loved tenting and the game because of you all. I couldn’t of asked for a better time, but now I think I’m going to. Who is in for doing this again and making The Fortress even better for next year?

GTHC,

Michael

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