Ladies of Hive Community Contest #38: The Gift of Experience

The best gift I ever gave to a close friend of mine for her birthday was a two-day camping trip filled with activities such as flashlight tag, releasing sky lanterns, fishing, and my most favorite camping activity which is a scavenger hunt. We had also invited her aunt and few other friends to come along.

My friend has previously struggled with hoarding items such as handbags, shoes, clothes, makeup etc. For anyone here who may not know what hoarding is, let me give you an explanation. Hoarding is when a person excessively stocks up on items and in my friend’s case, she developed an attachment to them and had difficulty giving those items away.

This time for her birthday, I decided to not give out any gifts and instead engage her in fun experiences and activities in hopes that she will find them more valuable than simply stocking up on items. I called my friend's aunt and together we made a list of all necessary items we will need to set up our camping spot, plan for emergencies by taking a first aid kit, sleeping bags, camp chairs, tables, tools, utensils etc. We picked a camping spot and called a camp guide to set up our scavenger hunt and tour the camp beforehand.

On the day of her birthday, we took a minivan to the camping spot, set up our base and went fishing. We experienced some difficulties as well when it came to these two activities and my friend did mention that it would have been easier to just go shopping at the mall instead of camping. Nonetheless, she still remained spirited and we caught 4 walleye fish. As dusk began to approach, we decided to play flashlight tag and drink hot cocoa. The next day we started the scavenger hunt. Everyone was waiting in anticipation for the prize to be announced but it was agreed upon that the prize is a surprise for the very end.

My friend ended up winning the scavenger hunt and won a free one-year payment of a sport fishing license along with training. As we were heading back home, my friend opened up about how she was reluctant at first about the camping trip since it was outside of her comfort zone but she found the whole experience extremely thrilling because it taught her outdoor skills for camping such as setting up a base and fishing.

What was more astonishing to me was the fact that three weeks after her birthday, she joined a camp volunteering position and began taking fishing lessons to improve her skills. She called me on the phone and said that her birthday camping trip was the best birthday experience she had without feeling tied to her hoarding habits of getting attached to gifts and instead she welcomed the competitive feeling of challenge during the scavenger hunt. It was the gift of sharing experiences and new skills with people whom she wanted to be around which ultimately inspired her to make a change in her life by taking the initiative to sign up for camp volunteering and fishing lessons.

Note: All images have been cited and the respective authors have been given credit. The images were sourced from unsplash.com