A Week in the Woods

"But Mom, I don't want to go camping," whined Jordan. Jordan and his twin brother Zach were going on a camping trip run by their small private school in New York City. They heavily complained as they stuffed their entire summer wardrobe into a giant suitcase.

"I don't see why Mom is making us go on this lousy trip," muttered Zach to his twin.

"I overheard her talking to Dad. She said something about getting us to appreciate 'the Great Outdoors.' It sounds like some sort of movie," he shot back, crankily.

"It's so stupid-the whole idea of bringing some city kids into the Catskills for a week, I mean," Zach said.

"Yeah-I know. Why won't they allow us to bring our laptops with us?" Jordan wondered out loud.

Zach just shrugged. Neither of them had a clue to what to expect.

The day came painfully when the twins had to board the school bus. To them, it was like being thrown into a dirty porter-potty. As the bus left the busy streets of New York, Jordan and Zach stared out the window at the country unfolding before them, neither of them sure of what was in store for them.

What actually was in store for them was bunks filled with rodents in the middle of nowhere, as cold as the North Pole.

Once they put their clothes and smuggled bags of candy away in their cabins, it was time for lunch. While waiting in line for food, they saw people coming back to the tables with plates piled high with what looked like vomit. Finally, it was Zach's turn to get food.

"OK. So, I want shrimp over linguine with lobster sauce."

The cook didn't answer-he just plopped a small portion of the greenish brown goop onto his plate.

Upon seeing the gross blob of Who-Knows-What on their plates, Jordan and Zach immediately lost their appetites.

After what seemed like an eternity, lunch finally ended. Now, it was time to go outside for their first course: Wilderness Survival.

As soon as they stepped outside, they regretted wearing basketball shorts. Their legs felt as if they would freeze right then and there. They didn't have time to complain, for at that exact moment, an ugly old woman came over to them and led them to a clearing in the woods. Leaving them only a compass, a mirror, and a map, she disappeared.

"What are we supposed to do?" asked Jordan to no one in particular.

"I guess we should find our way back to the dinning hall," Zach replied, wrinkling his nose.

As the two made their way down the mountain to the dinning hall, both of them felt an unfamiliar sense of happiness and excitement rushing through them. They realized that this was joy, pure joy that they were feeling. Jordan and Zach were the first ones to burst out of the wilderness into the field surrounding the dinning hall. When they were handed each a medal for their efforts, they discovered their love for nature. It didn't matter that they were on the verge of getting hypothermia, it didn't matter that all of the other kids got medals as well, it didn't even matter that the lunch tasted so terrible, Jordan and Zach wanted to stay at the camping trip forever.

Too soon, approached the end of the week, when the twins had to pack up their bags and head home. Both of them knew that New York City was as far from nature as you can get, and so they used their joint efforts to start a nature club in which they worked hard to improve the rooftop garden above their apartment. Hours and hours were spent planting trees and flowers in pots, but when the winter came, and all of the plants were moved into Jordan and Zach's apartment, they realized how much their hard work paid off. From then on, Jordan and Zach were no longer stuck-up rich kids, but rather nature addicts. The influence of nature changed their lives, and so can it change yours.