It’s officially summer and that means I’m itching to go camping! So here I’m sharing some life lessons learned from camping that have shaped how I look at things in the “real world”.
Table of Contents
Types of Camping
There are a lot of different types of camping. If you haven’t been camping recently, maybe you just haven’t seen how much it has changed since we were kids. Yes, it still involves you being out in nature – there’s no way around that – but there are varying levels of camping now that weren’t even imagined before. Maybe it’s worth it to provide a rundown of some of the more common types.
Primitive Camping
Primitive camping is for the hard-core naturist. As the name implies, there are no luxuries with you. It involves, for the most part, living off the land with a very basic shelter. If you can carry it in your backpack, it’s fair game to bring. Since space in a pack is limited, survival items trump luxuries.
Tent Camping
Tent camping is a (big) step up from primitive, and often campgrounds will have running water, showers, and flushable toilets. (Woohoo!) Limited comforts, like an air mattress for sleeping and a cooler for food, are acceptable items to have with you.
Glamping
Glamping is a fairly modern type of camping. It is often done with a large tent and many, many creature comforts and luxurious items. The idea is to make the camping experience as comfortable as possible. (Yes, that image is the inside of a TENT!!)
Recreational Vehicles
Using an RV/trailer/camper to experience nature in a four-walled shelter on wheels. These shelters range from very small and basic types that you attach to a hitch and pull behind your vehicle to surprisingly expensive, large homes on wheels (complete with working toilets, showers, kitchen sinks, washers, and dryers) with slide outs to make them even bigger.
Life Lessons Learned from Camping
- Unplug! Disconnect to Reconnect. Get off the technology devices and connect with people in real life. I cannot stress the importance of this too much (and I work in IT for a living!) If you are using your mobile phone to take pictures & video of your camping trip, that is perfectly acceptable!
- This world is amazing. We are so small and God is so good! Being out in nature, away from the daily grind, reminds us just how small we are.
- It’s ok to get lost sometimes. As I tell my husband all the time, “It’s an adventure!” Of course, he’s my favorite person to be lost and have adventures with…so it’s a win-win!
- People can still be polite. There’s an untold thing that tends to happen at campgrounds. Strangers walk by your campsite and say hello. They walk over to help you set up your tent in the rain. They lend tools and give away excess supplies. It’s amazing. Hope in humanity, restored.
- You don’t always have to lock your doors. Crime rates and city life have made us uneasy around strangers. In all our years of camping, I’ve only ever heard of one situation where someone had something stolen from their campsite while they were not there. Generally, it just doesn’t happen.
- We can live with a lot less than we’re accustomed to having. Fancy houses, 80″ TVs, gourmet meals every night…they can make life more comfortable or enjoyable, but they are not necessary.
- Social status disappears at campsites. An expensive RV with all the fun things in a camp lot next to a simple 2 person tent and a small cooler. The people in both campsites are there for the same purpose and it doesn’t matter what they’re sheltering in to accomplish that purpose.
- Campfire, Coffee, Sunrise. One of the most awe-inspiring moments in your life will be sitting by the campfire on a brisk morning with a hot cup of coffee, watching the sunrise, and listening to nature wake up.
- Few things in life bond people together quite like camping. Teamwork gets the campsite set up and tore down easier. Campfires and a disconnect from normal life cause conversations to go beyond surface level.
- If something doesn’t break – or if it doesn’t rain – it’s not really camping. OK, it can still be camping, but camping is like everything else in life…it’s probably not going to be perfect and sometimes it rains.
- You’re stronger/more resilient/clever than you think. When something breaks (or it rains and your tent is leaking), you are forced to problem solve the situation – often with limited resources.
- There’s something strangely comfortable about being uncomfortable. I’m just going to let you figure out this one on your own. I don’t want to spoil the fun!
- Flexibility is paramount. The ability to adapt is important and could be the difference between having a great adventure or a terrible experience. You’re going to be there regardless, so opt for the great adventure!
Living on less, problem solving, adapting…all of these things have crossover application away from camping. In my experience, the lessons I’ve learned about life from camping have helped to make me a more trustworthy person, a more useful contributor to my community, a better friend, and a more resourceful employee.
Ready for Some of Your Own Camping Adventures?
The first thing to do is decide what type of camping you want to do and then decide where to go. Once you have a general idea of where you want to go, research campsites in that area, maybe check out videos on YouTube, and find one that fits your criteria. Reserve your campsite lot, if necessary, then start packing! (That’s a whole different article on it’s own…maybe I will write that one up soon.)
Conclusion
Camping is a great way to get out in nature and recharge. It can be done solo, with your significant other, a group of friends, or a family trip. It can teach lessons about the environment, respect for nature, survival skills, and so much more. It can be done in campgrounds, a state or national park, or your own backyard. It can be done in a tent or a camper, and with or without luxury items.
Camping is for everyone! You just have to find your type of camping!
Curious what my personal preference is? We sometimes dream of RVing, but right now we are in some strange hybrid between tent camping and glamping. We definitely need the air mattress to sleep on (these bodies are too old to be sleeping on tree roots anymore!), and we enjoy the electrical hookup campsites (we have outdoor lights to prevent tripping over items in the dark, fairy lights to brighten the inside of the tent at night, and fans to keep the tent cool) and some other luxury-like items.
So far we have not crossed into the realm of real glamping – we do not take curtains, throw pillows, and fluffy area rugs for our tent (yet!). We do not take furniture except our air mattress, a couple foldable tables, and camp chairs.
We have a weeklong camping trip scheduled for September. I’ll make sure to do a proper story on our adventure then – with lots of pictures to show our setup (including our luxury items, haha!).
Truth be told, last year we did trade in our SUV for a bigger one…solely because we needed the space to haul our camping gear! And then we realized, to make it easier for us to pack and transport everything, we needed an additional roof rack for cargo, too. So now we’re pretty invested in tent camping for awhile. 🙂
What has camping taught you about life? Share your thoughts and life lessons below or on our Social Media.
