Once upon a time, there was a canoe...

It feels great to be back to "busy bee" status recently. My summer job has gone from being totally boring to extremely busy, as I work towards being able to close my office for the summer. I took a road trip with my dad to Fargo, N.D. last Friday, where I became a licensed Zumba instructor Saturday, and, Sunday, my lovely friend and I had an unexpected situation, involving a canoe. That's where the post actually begins. Get ready for a story! It has a nice point, though, I promise.

So, the aforementioned friend and I decided that we wanted to have some sort of a "beach day". She had never gone canoeing before, so we figured that coming to my family's campsite and going canoeing on the lake was a great way to pass a Sunday afternoon. I was very exhausted from the Zumba training I did the day before, so a relaxing canoe ride sounded even lovelier as the plans were made. 

We headed to the campsite, my dad got the canoe all ready to go, and we started our little journey, oars in hand. We rowed a little bit, for fun (my friend was so excited because she felt like Pocahontas), then decided we were just going to float and drift for a while. After a nice, long chat on the lake, we decided that it was probably time to get back. When we went to dip our oars back in the water, we realized how far away we actually were, from our starting point. It was alright, at first. We would paddle a little bit, then rest and talk...then paddle some more. The waves were starting to get pretty big, for a lake, which we didn't really think much of, since there were a few boats that had been zooming around us. One even stopped to ask if we needed help, but I politely declined. 

By the time that our attention was fully drawn to getting ourselves back to shore, we didn't really know where the shore was. Once we decided what direction we had to go, we realized how windy it had become. This strong wind was blowing us away from our destination, and the waves this wind had created were also putting us off-course. My friend and I rowed and rowed and rowed, but it didn't seem like we were getting any closer to our journey's end. The ever-growing frustration expanded when the wind blew us ashore, causing us to exert ourselves, even more than we had been, to get us back on-course. This happened a second time too, which made our efforts seem even more fruitless. Our arms were aching and becoming less and less functional, and we were incredibly parched, but if we stopped for even a second to rest our weary limbs, the wind would blow us back to where we had been moments before. We rowed as hard and fast as we could. Once I caught a glimpse of the shore we wanted to get to, we just had to keep telling ourselves that we were "almost there". After an extremely long time of rowing in frustrated, determined silence, we got back to shore, where my dad was waiting, laughing at us. It turned out that he had asked the people on the boat that had stopped, to check on us, so he knew we were okay. 

All was well. We re-hydrated, bought some ice cream, and went home to relax.  

There was certainly a point where I had almost given up. That doesn't happen very often with me, since I'm terribly stubborn, but I was trying to think of an easier way we could get back to the dock that didn't involve the way we ended up getting there, in the end. But, I came up short. There was no other way. 

Basically, the point to this story is: no matter how exhausting and frustrating that journey was, and how hopeless it seemed to be, our goal was still achieved. Sometimes, you may have to do things the hard way to achieve the best results, or the only results. You may have to go through frustration, anger, exhaustion, sadness, or what have you, to reach your desired destination. No matter how hopeless your journey may seem, though, if you are really willing to work hard to get to your destination, you will always come out with your head above the water. Let's face it, rewards are so much more appreciated if you have to work a little bit to get them, right?