48 Nebraskaland • March 2020
A Weekend of Exploration
My experience of Becoming an Outdoors-Woman
By Renae Blum
s part of the communications team at Nebraska Game
and Parks, I have been aware of the Becoming an
Outdoors-Woman Weekend Workshop for a long
time, a three-day event featuring a variety of outdoors
skills workshops for women. Each year I received e-mails
encouraging employees to attend, but always resisted.
I'll admit it: I am not an "outdoors woman." My hobbies –
reading, cooking fancy recipes, watching foreign fi lms – are
usually indoor ones. I also have trouble learning skills like
dancing or knitting that involve physical coordination or
mimicking an instructor's movements. I could see a lot of
potential for embarrassment in this.
The thing is, though, I wanted to spend more time outside.
My job has convinced me that some of the best experiences
in life can be found outdoors. So I checked out the workshop
list. As it happened, there were four workshops that fi t
activities I'd already tried and wanted to learn more about
(camping, kayaking) or wanted to learn (biking).
Being an introvert, I didn't relish the idea of going alone,
so I asked my good friend and roommate, Emily, to come
with me. She's not an "outdoors woman," either, but loves
taking walks around Holmes Lake. She's also a steadying
presence, easygoing and more impervious to potential
embarrassment. If she went there was a good chance I'd
have fun, even if I hated the workshops themselves.
She said yes.
A
