Oh hey, how ya’ doing. Have you ever been in a situation where you were legitimately scared  not like freaking out because you saw a spider, but actually being scared for your own safety.  If you have than you can relate to my own personal experience, let’s start from the beginning. I was at a Boy Scout summer camp with the rest of my troop last summer. We were all in our afternoon merit badge classes. I was in my robotics merit badge class and we were constructing our robots. I remember that it was a very sunny day when we went into the class, however, that didn't last long. About halfway through the class it gently started to rain. It was summer so this was completely ordinary so, the rest of the class and I pretty much dismissed it.

After about 15 minutes of calm rain mother nature decided to crank the faucet and what was a gentle sprinkle turned into rain drops hammering on the tin roof of the building. I’m sure you can imagine how ear-breakingly loud it was, my partner James and I had to yell for each other to hear. At this time I was silently saying a prayer that the rain would stop soon because class was almost over and I didn’t want to walk through the sleet freefalling in the sky. I think that the merit badge counselor was beginning to worry because every once in awhile he would poke his head out the door and see how much things had developed in the storm. When he did all of the students in the class quickly bolted to the door like cats chasing a lazer pointer as we were curious about how much things had changed since the last time.  I honestly did not think that things could get any worse, only it did.

Once the clouds were pleased with the gallons of water they had previously dumped on us they decided to turn the tables and drown us with hail. This increased the pounding noise on the roof and made focusing on our work unimaginable. The instructor told us to pack up the supplies and to place our robots off to the side and we did. Now we had absolutely nothing to do so the class pretty much just sat around and talked, although it was difficult to hear each other due to the hail. Every couple of minutes we would peek out the door to see how much the hail had died down and each time we were disappointed to see that it just looked like it had picked up. When we did look outside it almost looked as if it was snowed because of all the hail piled up in giant hills. After a little while we noticed that it had begun to quiet down outside and then we discovered that the rain had subsided.

Then our counselor did what he was taught to do in training and bring us all to the dining hall. I was not sure why we had to go because we were already inside a building but I went willingly anyway. I now understand that they wanted us all in one place so they could take attendance and make sure that everyone was accounted for. So, all of the class trudged through the pouring rain and tried our best to stay out of the puddles that were forming. In my head I was cursing myself for forgetting to pack my rain jacket and having to wear a light hoodie that pretty much absorbed the water falling on me. I was starting to wonder if we were lost when the dining hall came into view. The class stumbled into the dining hall and it kinda’ looked like something out of a movie when the hero tumbles into a building all ragged and beaten up. I looked around to see who ever from my troop was there and to my relief I found everyone looking tired, cold, and miserable, but still there.

Finally the rain slowed to a complete stop and my troop made our way back to our camp in the mud. I was delighted that that the storm was over and I’m sure that everyone else was too. From that day on I will remember always to be prepared for the worst while camping.