Diary of a Derby Girl

In Miss Pope's class. I'm the little girl in the background and sort of half hidden from the camera.

When I was in elementary school, my 5th grade science teacher Miss Pope got my class lost in the woods behind the school.

We were investigating plants and doing some sort of project. I don’t really remember, because I was panicking about the being lost. My classmates laughed at me and the teacher told me we were fine. We probably were, but my anxiety would not listen to reason and I started to cry.

At this point, my teacher stops and the entire class is listening. She tells me, “be brave, like Daniel Boone.” He was an American pioneer we were studying.

I wanted to die when she said this. I hated her for years after that. I heard “Hey, just be like Daniel Boone” for the rest of my middle school career. Kids are evil.

I still don’t particularly care for the outdoors. I have a fear of heights, I don’t like bugs, being away from civilization is a strange feeling, I don’t like that I can’t get a cellphone signal and I hate not being able to take a hot shower.

Me. Getting ready to sleep in a tent.

That said, I really like camping. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s the people I’m with that always makes it such a fun time. Maybe it’s the s’mores or the fire pit or the novelty of the tents or the crunch of the gravel beneath my feet. I’m not sure what it is, but I love to camp.

Because I like camping and because I recently lost my job, I decided a trip to Utah to camp and hike with my good friend, Erin, was a great idea. I was not quite prepared for hiking in Utah. A hike in Michigan is not the same as a hike in Utah – where there are mountains. Which I did not like, of course, because they are outdoors and they are high in the air.

The beautiful mountains

But once I got to Utah, the scenery (and the altitude) took my breath away and I forgot all about the whole not liking mountains thing. It was just so beautiful in Utah.

I’d never seen a mountain up close before in my life. I’ve only ever seen them in movies, postcards and photos. I was totally seduced by the beauty of Utah and forgot about being afraid.

Until I actually went hiking.

The fear came rushing back when I peeked over the side of a mountain and saw that I was above the trees, saw that birds were flying below me. “Oh. I feel sick,” I said and had to pull away before I got light headed. Putting me on the side of a mountain and asking me to jump over streams of water is just … well, you need a lot of patience and I need a lot of trust in you.

Erin blogged about my mountaineering and even has video of the momentary freak out I had trying to cross a stream on the way back to the campground. The stream looks much smaller on the small screen than it did in person.

Cheers to Erin and Craig, for their patience. Cheers to me, for stepping outside of my comfort zone and cheers for the mountains for being so damn gorgeous.

Me, peering over the edge of a mountain.

Maybe I should say something about being glad I overcame a fear and I learned something new.

I should probably say I had a moment of personal evolution, that I’m better for this experience and it helped me realize that I just need to believe in myself.

That there’s “nothing to fear, but fear itself” and all.

But really, I’m just glad no one told me to be like Daniel Boone.