Two weeks and one month.

Okay, we all know it had to come at some point, the countdown, that is.

This past week, I was hired by Amity Middle School to come out and do three presentations about
the American Civil War for them, for three 8th grade classes, altogether numbering about 68.

The only time it was sunny was when everyone was gone at lunch break, and right when I was packing up. Otherwise it was a fairly good rendition of a Fort Hoskins springtime day, with green grass sneakily covering up the mud that wound up all over my leathers, tents, and 8th graders who couldn't believe that I actually enjoyed sleeping on the ground with one blanket and my uniform for warmth.

At any rate, we had fun in its various forms,  and more importantly, I left more excited for my internship at Harpers Ferry NHP. You may be asking, 'well, why haven't you been excited about it before now?'. An understandable question, to be sure, especially if you know how I am in my day to day life.

I guess I would say that its still been a sort of surreal feeling, with me leaving my beloved Oregon to go across the country to live and work for 12 weeks. I'm still feeling a mix of emotions, mostly good, with me eager to go to get out of Oregon for a variety of reasons, and in some ways wanting it to be a longer internship, in some ways a shorter internship. For me as a reenactor, its hard to believe I'm actually doing this. For me as a person, I'm a little nervous. What will it be like? What will change, if anything, after this? Will I still want to work for the NPS after this internship? These questions, and others, are haunting my mind.

But for me, I guess I relax with thinking about why I love this hobby so very much.
First and foremost, it allows me to relive my nation's history with a great bunch of guys, who I would go to hell and back again with if they asked me to. Reenacting is my getaway, and the time where I socialize and have absolutely no worries on my mind, unless you count the wonderings as to if my tent mates are burning the salted pork again.

Second, it helps me to recreate myself, even for a few days each month.
I think myself overly critical of, well, me. I look back and see where there's been a mess, and I don't like it. I look in the mirror and I'm not impressed, because I know who i really am. Reenacting is an opportunity to create a whole new David Plett, with a whole different life. This isn't to say that my personality changes a whole lot, but my history does, in a way. In short, for a few days out of the month during the summer, I am allowed to forget myself and just plain have fun. There's no facebook, no cell phones, and the highest form of entertainment is hearing the wannabe comedians botch jokes at the civilian's camp talent show. There's so many ways to be critical of ourselves: how are my grades? am I doing a good job for my boss? how could I have made him/her love stay? The list is endless. For me, reenacting and living history is a way to escape all of that and just be me.

Thirdly, it allows me to have experiences that I never would have had otherwise. For example,
next friday, the North West Civil War Council (NCWC) will be conducting a live military funeral for an original Civil War veteran. No, the guy isn't more than 150 years old, he died in 1924, but his remains have been in storage since then, and the time has finally come to give him a proper burial in Willamette National Cemetery. This is a huge honor for me to do, because what we'll be doing is not reenacting in this instance. This is real. I will look forward to telling my children and grandchildren about this experience in the future, should I be blessed with that future.

Another experience I am looking forward to is next year, Lord willing. If I am able to raise the funds, I am hoping to attend the 150th anniversary reenactment of the battle of Gettysburg, in Pennsylvania. I am told this will probably be the largest reenactment I will see in my lifetime, and if I can, I don't want to miss it.

So, needless to say, I am now starting to be more excited about my internship, I'm not quite counting down the days and minutes, but its a sort of "I can't wait to get on the plane and go, I'm ready to go" sort of feeling. It'll be good to leave my home behind for a few weeks, sad to not see my friends for a while, to be sure, but then again, change is good. A chance to 'get away from it all' is good.

Oh, and fireflies. I've never seen a firefly in my life  before, and that is near the top of my list to see on the east coast. Hey, its the simple things in life, right?

Okay, I'm done rambling, I'll go back in my hole.
Until next time, toodlepip!