This slightly lost introvert is back from a magical weekend in the woods with…strangers. And, some of those strangers have now become friends!

If you’re looking for a way to tap into adventure and are in the SF Bay Area, I highly recommend looking into the Explorers Guild. It’s the passion project of my pal Dr. Professor, who I met a few years back through another cool indie art-group, and it basically marries scouting (yes, you can earn badges) with storytelling and light improv. 

Ok, let me back this up a little. A few months ago, a friend told me that I needed to “embrace ambiguity” more. So, I’ve been sitting with that advice, wondering how to do just that. 

I’m already a bit of a hermit, happy to be alone for the most part. But the pandemic has left me more isolated and lonely than usual. Also during the past few years, I’ve been examining my relationships and learning how to separate the “wheat from the chaff.” All of this has left me wondering, who do I want in my life now, and how do I meet them? Pandemic or not, in my experience, meeting new friends as an adult can be hard.

So when my 17-year-old took a big step towards independence by setting off on a four-day backpacking trip with her boyfriend, I set off on a different kind of independent journey—an off-grid campout in Muir Woods with the Explorers Guild. 

And, wow, am I glad I did. I marched for miles amongst old growth redwoods, learned to play a new-to-me group guessing game called Botticelli, helped lure a dragon and, quite unexpectedly, made some new and meaningful connections.

In other words, I gently hugged ambiguity and lived to tell about it.