So, there was this one time when I was in about, grade 7 or 8, where our elementary school class went on a field trip. I know, you can't get much more vague than a feild trip, but I don't exactly remember where it was. Erh, like most people, as time passes, memories of mine magically escape the confines of my mind. For some reason I want to say it was Wildwood, but I am not sure if that is entirely correct. It was a huge forest that we visited on a cold day - I for sure remember that much.
You may be asking why I have remembered this field trip, out of the many that I have been on and have forgotten, as well, as why I am writing about this one.
Basically, it's because a traumatic event occured during that momentous day.
It was cold, drizzly, miserable and really wet. It wasn't a complete downpour, but it was the type of weather that chills you to your bones, and makes it feel like you'll never really be dry and warm again. It was a day where you're like, of course the sadistic elementary teachers force you to go outside and have "fun". Personally, I think that elementary teachers have an uncanny knack of having outdoor field trips on the days where nobody should be outside, let alone a bunch of kids, and it kind of makes me think that a) they are a tad psychic and b) they get a perverse pleasure out of their students' suffering.
That day's scheduled "fun" was, using a map and a compass, navigate your way around the maze-like forest and reach scheduled destinations. If I may be frank, fun my ass. That is like the complete opposite of fun. (TORTURE).
Just to be safe, the wilderness staff thought that it would be better to put us in pairs of two, because, surely, two brains are better than one. (Although, I'm not entirely sure this was true in my case.)
I was with my friend Jenna. Jenna, like me, was kind of uncoordinated and, klutzy, and, well, just all around like me.
We we're given a map, a compass, and a brief tutorial on how to read the map and compass(during which Jenna and I were both distracted - mostly because of each other). I seriously did not think that I needed a map. Sure, I was a little cocky, but I was also a Girl Guide, and I did this tri-yearly - which was a requirement for a few of our badges. I had common sense - I knew how to read a map and compass.
And yet nothing prepared us for this fateful day.
Soon after the brief tutorial was done, the teachers herded us out of the incredibly small cabin, much like farmers herd cows into their pastures. There was one last thing that was said: "If you, for any reason, get lost just walk north and you'll eventually find your way back to the main lodge.
Oh, and one last note, being the sadistic elementary school teachers the teachers were, they told us that we were getting marked on our teamwork, as well as how long it takes us to reach the last destination - that kind of added pressure to a lot of people.
Not really me though, I was as cool as a cucumber. Well, for the first five minutes.
Jenna and I kept up with the pack for the first 3-ish destinations, but then we fell behind. Why? Well, because we kind of got distracted. By distracted I mean, we saw this really cool log that we absolutely had to try and sit on. This kept us amused for a bit - I know... the things that kept me amused when I was younger is rather embarassing. However, soon after we remembered that we were getting marked on how long it took us to get to the finish line. We were on our way shortly after that realization.
*cue suspensful music - I had dropped something vitally important, something that we really needed to get to the finish line, and I didn't realize that I dropped it until, well it was too late.
We saw the general direction that people went in before we became separated from the group, so we started to walk that way. Soon after that, we realized, we had absolutely no freaking clue where the hell we were.
I went to pull out the compass so we could determine what north was - and much to my complete and utter shock. I had no idea where it was. Without the compass, we would have to rely solely on the map to get us to the finish, there was no way we would be able to find the lodge now.
I still wasn't panicking, I knew how to read a map. (I however didn't have the map, that was Jenna's job - my job was to take care of the compass - and I failed so miserably at that Jenna refused to let the map come within ten metres of me.)
We walked, and we walked, and we walked, and we walked. Nothing was familiar - and we hadn't seen any classmates - and two hours had passed. Allow me to also point out that our feet were blocks of ice, we were wet and completely drenched, and we were absolutely miserable.
And we were completely freaking out - the forest that we were in was HUGE. Like many amounts of acres. (I don't know exactly how many acres, because I have no idea where we went, but trust me, it was HUGE!)
I begged Jenna to let me see the map, it's not that I didn't think she couldn't read a map, although at that point I was having my doubts. Much to her chagrin, she allowed me to look at it. I stared at it for a few minutes, comparing it with my surroundings. I was confused because nothing on the map matched up to the landscape that was surrounding us. I turned the map 90 degrees, and then another 90 degrees. There was silence. And then, a string of swear words came bellowing out of my mouth.
@#&$(@&
Jenna had the map upside down. We were going down a 20 Kilometre trail and I had no idea
1) Where it would end up
2) How far down it we were
3) How to get back to the actual forest part of the map
I stared at her, my face white, but slowly turning purple (and for those who know me will know that my face turning purple - or red for that matter - is quite a feat), my lips were in a slight snarl. I was breathing deeply, as if I was trying to calm myself d-d-down.
Basically, I wasn't that concerned about the fact that we were lost now, or about the fact that we would most likely recieve a failing mark - in fact that wasn't even on my mind because I really didn't care about school back then - but about how I would never live this down. I'm was a girl guide for crying out loud. I should have killed that assignment, and I mean killed. But no, I was stuck, god knows where, and I didn't know what to do.
Jenna probably thought that I was mad at her, I really wasn't. Why? It was just as much of my fault as it was her. I was the genius that lost the compass after all.
Before that day, I generally had a good direction; I knew, basically, where to go when I was travelling along to wherever I was travelling along to. However, ever since that day, my sense of direction is non-existent. I am the last person that you want to be with when you are lost. I have no clue where to go, yet people tend to ask me. DON'T ASK ME! - unless, you want to be hiking down a 20 km trail. You may think that I am exaggerating, but I really am not, it is atrocious. People ask me where to go, and I'll point somewhere, however, I normally end up sending them the wrong way.
It infuriates my friends/family when they ask me where to go and I just shrug my shoulders. But really, I don't know, I'm doing you a favour, because I'm pretty sure that you don't want to end up lost (and if you listen to me that's pretty much exactly where you will end up: right in the middle of I'm-so-lost-I-can't-imagine-being-any-more-lost-then-this-ville - Oh, and if you do end up there, be sure to ask for the mayor, because that's me!).
Anyway, I kind of got a little off topic there, which, happens a lot if you know me. So you're probably wondering how I got out of that mess, because obviously I managed to find a way - I wouldn't be here typing this if I didn't.
Long story short, despite what I learned in girl guides that you should stay put when you're lost, I suggested to Jenna that we should probably get moving, they weren't going to look for us where we were (it technically wasn't even a part of the forest). We stopped talking for a bit and we heard the sounds of cars in a general direction. We, together, decided that it would be for the best if we went that way. So we walked, and we walked, and we walked. And, eventually we ended up at a campground (it was one with motorhomes where people live year round so we were lucky).
We knocked on the door of the home we saw and, while bawling our eyes out, we explained to the person that answered the torturous trials that we endured. They called the forest people, and they came to pick us up. All was well in our worlds again, well minus the laughing and the teasing that I both forsaw and feared.
But, even today, sometimes I have nightmares about that day.
I'll never forget the day where I lost my direction, perhaps forever, as it still has not come to me yet. This worries me, as I'll be navigating through a maze of a university campus next year. That would really suck if I ended up going down a 20km trail the first day. Eek!
Later Gators.
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