Forest Camping; Bonding with nature even at Night.

Many childhood wishes do end up as something dumb when we browse through those memories as an adult.

Sometimes, we feel like "Did I really make these wishes?".

Yes, we did

But, it's not completely our fault because many of those wishes were influenced by our limited understanding, cartoons, fairytales and others. For instance, building a snowman was something I wanted to try as a kid even though it never snowed in my country before. I always talked about it with my friends as if I was very certain that it would snow someday. As I grew older, I realised building a snowman wasn't much of a big deal and I can easily do that if it snows but being a child, I always dreamt of doing it.

As silly as many of those wishes were, there are still the relevant ones that I want to do as an adult.

I love hanging out in nature and spending time with nature has been one of the ways I help myself mentally. It's not a thing that started today, I love going to the river and walking in farms because these things make me feel good but I didn't understand what it was.

From seeing movies and reading magazines, I desired to do more with nature. I see people camp in the woods far away from the city noise for days, breathing fresh air, meditating and connecting with nature so I started desiring it as well.

I was a teenager then but wasn't silly not to understand the risk of doing that in my country. If people can disappear in public and never be found again in broad daylight, camping in the woods will be a very terrible mistake.

In 2007, during the school long vacation. I joined some church youth who went to the beach. I was a teenager and my mom didn't want me to join them because they weren't returning that day.

I was so adamant about going with them and when a few people got involved, she didn't have a choice. She handed me over to the youth leader and I was excited.

It was my first time at the beach and it didn't look like in the pictures and movies. There were boats, fishing nets, damaged huts, plastic waste and others, the location was Badagry. I didn't let those things bother me as I ran back and forth with the wave and chased crabs till dark.

Later that night, things turned around quickly. I noticed the population there was increasing and was told that people crash there at night.

We laid mats, had dinner and I saw our youth leader digging the sand.

"What's that for?", I asked with so much curiosity.

"To hide the valuable things we have", he replied.

I was surprised because I never imagined that the beach wouldn't be a safe place. The next morning, we heard complains about people being robbed and since then, I haven't passed the night at the beach.

Yeah, insecurity is a big issue here and camping in the woods could see me getting kidnapped or something else might just happen. I have read about resorts in Nigeria and I can only trust what happens during the day. The evil that lurks around in the dark still scares me but camping in the woods some day probably with my family or friends will be a great deal for me.

If just spending a few hours in nature makes me feel great, I wonder what the effect of spending 2-3 days there would be on me.

Even if I can eventually find myself in a place where doing these things aren't life-threatening, it would be stressful for to me always move back and forth, so I will prefer to own a property surrounded by nature. A tree house, a cottage in the woods or at the ocean side would be enough for me to feel refreshed always and get the best of nature every time.

I hope I haven't bored you with my stories. In a nutshell, camping in the woods is something I have always wanted to do but can't do due to reasons beyond my control.

It is my first time participating in the community prompt and I look forward to participating in more prompts plus engaging with other members of the community.