I love the wilderness. I love the smells, the sounds, the bugs, the poison ivy, and especially the challenges and adventures. I’m no royal ranger, but I have been camping every single year of my life, so I consider my self pretty out-door savvy.
The top five things I would want on a desert island are a steel knife, flint, the Bible, a hatchet, and some sort of container. These 5 things would be able to cover all of my basic needs on a remote island. First the steel knife can be used to make weapons, skin and clean animals, and for personal protection. The flint combines with the steel knife for fire. The bible is important for my spiritual health and mental sanity. A Hatchet is important for the larger scale cutting that a knife cannot due such as wood for a fire, housing, and transportation. Finally the container (could be anything from a steel pot to a turtle shell) is important for distilling and holding water, or for cooking any meat that I am able to kill.
The condition that would make it the easiest for me to survive would be solitude. Even though I cannot think of everything that is important, I am able to learn quickly from my mistakes and I am confident in my current survival knowledge. Although I wouldn’t have a difficult time if I were able to select the other people that I was stranded with, the condition that would make it hardest for me to survive without hurting anyone else would be being stuck with annoying people. I’m not being sexist here but I am saying that I would not enjoy the company of most of the girls I know if we were stranded together. Some of these girls (Nicki) have realized during our class decision that if they let me make the decisions and laid back, we would all get along and be able to survive, but others just never stop complaining when we are in civilization, so I wouldn’t want to have to listen to them when we are not in civilization. I’m also not saying that all of the girls I know would be annoying. I would love being stranded with women like Ms. Mauro, or Emily and Brittany, because they know what they’re talking about when they speak, and they don’t complain about insignificant things. What I can’t stand is the kind of girl (or guy) whose life is so centered on technology or material comforts that they become a hindrance to survival. These are the kind of people that when asked what three things they would bring if they were stranded would say “my ipod, hairbrush, and makeup.” Hopefully, the experience of being stranded would change these people and bring them to the realization that there are more important things than music and comfort.
