My boat is once again afloat

I'm back from guiding my first kayak trip of the season. And it was fantastic! It's nice to be reminded of how much I love something.

I was a bit nervous about the trip because it was guiding a group of grade 10 boys from private school. That's pretty much the demographic I feel most uncomfortable with...or at least I thought I did. What do I know about boys? And that age I just find tough because I worry that they won't think I'm cool and will be mean to me. I know how mean kids can be to a bad substitute teacher!

In spite of all my anxieties, it went extremely well! A few of them were definitely a pain in the ass some of the time, but some of them were also keen and funny and interesting. I laughed a lot, and got a real kick out of what city boys many of them were. I got them to touch the tentacles of little aggregate sea anemones, and they screamed like girls. No word of a lie. One afternoon on land we split into two groups and I took one and the other guide took the other. First, I had my group set up a tarp on their own, then I came along and gave them some advice on how to improve it. It was awesome watching them work together to set it up, and really take it seriously (it was also hilarious to see the final product...which was definitely in need of improvement!) Then I took them on an hour-long beach walk where we poked more sea creatures, looked at pictures of impossibly phallic geoducks, and talked about middens.

In the end I got new "friends" on Facebook (a little weird but what the heck) and would actually really like to work with kids that age again. Even boys!