Try something new...don't be a pansy ass

Yesterday I came back from an adventure unlike any other I've had. If you had asked me if I had always wanted to do what I did this weekend I'd probably shrug my shoulders and say, "I don't know". But then again, you never know what you might like to do until you try it on for size.
I went on a paddling trip for the first time, portaging and all. I consider myself to be a city girl through and through. In fact, the day before I left for this trip I got a pedicure. That's how ill prepared mentally I was for what I was going to be up to. The destination of my trip was a secluded lake about four hours from the closest phone. No shit. We ended up camping on an uninhabited lake that did not have one other human being apart from two of us on it.
I'm big on building adventure into my life but none of my adventures to date have taken me so far away from civilization. With a little trepidation and a determination to enjoy myself, I ventured into the woods. And I'm so pleased I did. Here's a list of some of the things I saw and/or heard:
Loons
A flying squirrel
Heron
Small mouth bass
Rock bass
Sun fish
Daddy long legs
Whipperwhirl (?)
Blue jay
Woodpecker
Black bear (kidding of course but I was freaked I would)
Deliverance style hunting cabin in the middle of nowhere with animal cages strewn about
Shooting stars

Here's a list of some of the things we did:
Built a big fire one night and drank camping margeritas
I learned how to fish and watched how to filet a fish and we ate our killings that night
Pumped water from a crystal clear lake
Swam loads
Carried loads of stuff over a few portages
Watched a moon rise (wicked and this alone was enough to make the trip fantastic)

Here's a list of things I walked away with:
Legs torn apart with scratches
Loads of bites
A greater appreciation for the huge love I have from so many areas of my life
A realization that I need to slow down a bit more and limit my use of technology whenever possible
A better understanding of how I need to be more patient in my life
A lighter heart having left behind some shit in the woods (no pun intended ha ha)

So my whole point of this blog is if someone offers you a new experience take it if part of you feels a twinge of excitement. Without new experiences and new challenges, we all stagnate. Sometimes lighting a fire inside us just takes trying something outside our comfort zone. If we want to discover new physically challenging things to do, I think we all have to risk being crappy at something or making a fool of ourselves at first. And if you're lucky like me, you'll have someone invite you to do something and have the patience to show you how.