Better be safe than sorry. If you've ever gone camping you have probably heard more than once to pack lots and lots of warm clothes especially if you're camping in the woods. The temperatures can be harsh and unexpected so you always need to be prepared. When I went camping this summer I was more sorry than safe to say the least.

The camping trip was expected to be fun, with a lot of games and sleeping in tents. I started packing for the trip 2 days before as I was excited. It was the middle of July so the expectations were for the days to be hot and and nights to be warm. Boy, was I wrong. As I usually overpack, this year I decided to try to not pack as much things. I grabbed the necessities, and as suggested on the packing list, a sleeping bag, pillow and one blanket. Out of warm clothes I only took one (not so warm) sweatshirt and jeans. Since this was only for one night, I didn’t think much about bringing too much along.

The camp was amazing and a lot of  fun. The weather was nice and warm, I would even say hot. We played a lot of games and had a lot of fun. When evening came, my friend who I had met not that long ago, only in December but we hit it off and became very close. She is a very fun person who is just a little taller than me and has light brown long hair, that kind I wish to have. We changed into our warm clothes, but we were still cold, so we brought out the blanket and sat still pretty cold but fairly warm anyways. For some reason we had assumed that it would be a lot warmer but we were wrong. My friend and I were sharing tent with another girl, so when it was time to sleep, instead of getting into our individual sleeping bags, we for some reason thought that it would be smart to spread one sleeping bag out on the air mattress and cover ourselves with the second one. We didn’t bother to change into the pajamas that we brought, because we were already cold as is and changing would only make it worse, so I decided to just sleep in my jeans and sweatshirt.   

Everything was alright for about 2 to 3 hours, I actually got some sleep because I was in the middle of my two friends and it was very warm and cozy between my friends. After about 2 to 3 hours one of my friends got way too cold so she got up, took her sleeping bag and left to the car to sleep with her other friend. Because she left, I got a lot colder, I woke up to my body freezing. It was still dark outside and the only thing illuminating the tent was a lone, eerie flashlight suspended from the roof of the tent. Everyone was still sound asleep all around me so pulling my remaining friend in closer, I tried to fall asleep once again. After tossing and turning for a little while, I managed to pull myself up to turn the flashlight off, plungering myself in darkness. When I did manage to fall asleep, I would soon be awake again due to the cold. This continued for the rest of the night. Restless tossing and turning and trying to keep warm kept me up, I only managed to doze off for 30 minutes at a time. It was horrible.

When morning came I opened my eyes to the light green color of the small tent and the sunlight streaming in. My friend had woken up also and we exchanged our experience of both being super cold during the night. Since it was not yet time to get up we decided to get a little bit more sleep. Then it dawned on me, why can’t we just each use our own sleeping bag? It’ll probably be warmer anyways. After suggesting this we each grabbed our sleeping bag and wrapped ourselves in. It was so warm. I only regret not doing that sooner. I finally felt warm after 15 hours of practically freezing. We were both already wide awake so after consuming in the warmth, we got up. I grabbed my shoes to put on and they were so so cold but it was all I had to put on so I had to just deal with it. Staggering out of the tent and stepping onto the wet grass. The air felt nice and crisp as I inhaled deeply. Although the night was cold and I barely got any sleep, waking up to a sunrise and fresh crisp air was definitely worth it. As I headed down to breakfast, I mentally promised myself to never go camping again, or at the very least always bring a lot of warm clothes and never rely on body heat to keep you warm throughout the night.