John’s Nature Experience
One of John’s most memorable experiences with nature was out in the woods camping. He didn’t even know the camp’s name. But it was a troubled teen’s camp. John was about thirteen years old. John threw an eraser at his teacher’s face because he thought that the teacher was calling his parents for no reason, and then was expelled from school. It took him about three to four hours to get to camp. The land was full of high green trees and lots of different types of plants. John had never seen such things, he lived in the suburbs his whole life. The smell was clean like green vegetables to John. He saw mountains covered with beautiful tall trees and animals he’s never seen before. They rode on a bumpy dirt road which John has never experienced before in his life.
When John arrived to the camp, he and other troubled teens had little cabins with little beds in them. For John it felt like a prison. He’s used to large rooms and a big bed, since he lived in a nice house in the suburbs. His group unpacked and went out to look around the area. While he looked around the area, he made some friends. They all were there because they were just like John, a troublemaker. He found a stream that was fast. It was rushing downward so John knew he was up on a hill. He also found squirrels, ants, birds and foxes at that time. With the slingshot in his pocket, he wanted to shoot some of those animals. John grabbed a couple of circular rocks and shot them at any animal he saw. When the rock hit the animals they start running really fast and limping while running. To John that was hilarious.
As the camp went on, he had to play a game that was about survival. John did lots of stream crossing, running and climbing trees. He also had to put his entire body into the mud. John had to run in a small path to the finish line. He also had to read the signs on the trees to know which way to go to. But John just wanted to win and get a prize in the end. He missed a sign, because of running really fast. After a while he noticed that the signs and everyone else were starting to disappear. John thought he was close to the finish line. In his way there were lots of plants and other stuff that left marks on his feet. He had decided to jump over them. He flew straight into a barbed wire fence. John all of a sudden felt a deep pain in his leg. It felt like someone stabbed him in his leg with a knife. That part was really painful, because he walked back for ten minutes and was bleeding and limping on the way. He didn’t know they had barbed wire fences in that camp. And they told John the fences were there to keep all the dangerous animals away.
When he arrived to camp his leg had to be treated right away. The camp leader told John that for the rest of the time all John could do was lie in bed and wait till camp was over. John didn’t want to lie in bed. He wanted to go out there and do the things he wanted to do. So when everybody left John’s room, he decided to get up and go outside. But he couldn’t. The pain from his leg kept him from moving. He had to lie in bed the rest of the day.
As two days passed, John had so much pain that he couldn’t walk. Nobody there wanted to hang out with him in the cabin. Everybody wanted to go outside and explore the beautiful nature. John started to realize something. He remembered the animals he had shot with his slingshot. They were also in pain. Maybe this was nature’s payback to John. He started to feel bad for those animals. They were out in the cold. John was lucky enough that he was in a warm cabin. As camp came near to the end, John thought of those animals the whole time.
When he arrived home, he told his parents to take him straight to the animal shelter. He looked around and asked the workers for the animal’s background stories. Like where they were found and what had happened to them. He found a little brown shepherd and a skinny tall black cat. They were starved and thrown away from their owners. John took them home and fed them. He gave the animals the love and affection they needed. The nature experience was at first exiting, painful and then sad, it changed his perspective on how to treat others.