Chapter 37 Prep for Scout Class — from my book Changes

Chapter 37

Prep for Scout Class

Scout class was the Trackerschool class that intimidated me the most, at least until I heard about the Urban Escape and Evasion class (which I have not been brave enough to take yet).

Scout class boasts high speed invisibility training, nightly raids on other scouts and nearby parties, lots of camouflage, and blindfolded fighting on the log spanning over the swim hole.

In order to overcome my fear, I decided to begin training for the grueling hikes promised us brave souls who decide to attend.  I was about 25 pounds overweight at the time, and had little stamina for walking or running, so I began a program of jogging a few days a week.

After training for 6 weeks I was able to slowly jog a mile.  I invited my husband to go for a run with me, thinking I would impress him.  I smugly suggested he might want to ride a bike so he could keep up with me.  He declined and said he would run with me.

Now, you have to understand, my husband sits all day in front of a computer at work.  Being a workaholic he spends long hours that way every day, and gets very little exercise.  Consequently, I figured I would have to walk off and on during our “run” so he could keep up with me.

Imagine my surprise when my husband jogged the entire mile with me, without stopping, and was not even out of breath!  Meanwhile, I struggled to finish the mile without stopping.  I was breathing heavily and sweating profusely while he was dry, relaxed, and breathing normally.

The only way I can make sense of his ability to run like that is the fact that he is descended from the Quechua natives of Bolivia, who have a reputation for long distance running.

I did lose that 25 pounds and continued running to get into shape for the Scout class.

My plans to attend Scout class were interrupted one night, however, when I felt a very strong urgency to do something but I didn’t know what it was.  I was pacing the house and greatly agitated.  Finally, I went outside and began walking our driveway.  The weather was mild in Florida where I lived, though it was dark.  In desperation I asked, “What am I supposed to do?”

I surrendered to nothingness and an image came to my mind.  I was standing in a large open grassy area where there was a crowd of people in a depression in the center, like in a giant bowl.  I noticed a few other people, including Malcolm Ringwalt, the Vision Quest teacher, standing on the outskirts of the field with me, surrounding the people in the middle.  It felt like we were somehow protecting the people in the middle.

I realized I needed to learn to protect people who were vision questing since Malcolm is a vision quest protector and teaches others to protect vision questers too.

I immediately looked at Malcolm’s schedule for Vision Quest Protector classes and saw that the prerequisite for the Vision Quest Protector class is the Vision Quest itself.  It was a good thing I looked into this right away because the deadline for registering to Vision Quest with Malcolm was only a day or two away.

I registered immediately and felt a great relief.  I was on track.  I would not be taking the Scout class that year.  Instead, I would be Vision Questing and taking the Vision Quest Protector class.