Camp FI Midwest 2018 Recap

This last week­end I had the plea­sure of attend­ing Camp Fi: Mid­west 2018 on the banks of the St. Croix Riv­er. This was the 5^th Camp Mustache/Camp FI event I’ve been to, and the 7^th big meet­up if you include the Chau­tauquas in Ecuador. Each one was spe­cial in it’s own way.

I find it fun to look back on past event recaps to see what I got out of them and how that’s changed over the years.

My first few events I went to get advice, soak up the knowl­edge of those around me and have some fun.

I’m still will­ing to get advice, soak up knowl­edge (like from Tan­ja’s excel­lent chat on health care), and have some fun, but that’s not my main focus any­more. I’ve learned that now I’m the one giv­ing out advice and hav­ing oth­ers soak up my knowl­edge.

Oh how the tables have turned.

I also real­ly, real­ly appre­ci­at­ed the words of com­fort and sup­port I got from every­one there. My last post about things not work­ing out the way I planned struck a chord with both the read­ers of this blog and the peo­ple I talked to at Camp FI. I had incred­i­bly deep, raw, and hon­est con­ver­sa­tions with some peo­ple while there that I will appre­ci­ate more than they prob­a­bly know.

This is why I love going to these events. Where else can you go to have deep con­ver­sa­tions with peo­ple who have been in your shoes? (or a pair that looks a lot like them). The peo­ple who go to these events are my peo­ple. They are my tribe.

If you haven’t been to one, I can’t urge you enough to go to one! Your life won’t be the same because of it. Is that state­ment bor­der­ing on slight­ly over­dra­mat­ic? Maybe, but it is true. The path of my life changed after my first FI event. It’s as addic­tive as cocaine, but with good side effects instead of bad ones like tweak­ing out naked in a mall foun­tain or holes in your nose.

What do peo­ple do at events like Camp FI?

If your name is Carl (Mr. 1500) you run around with a plas­tic bag­gie full of dinosaurs in your pock­et and leave pic­tures of dinosaurs on peo­ple’s unat­tend­ed phones. Like this one. I’m actu­al­ly proud I got dinosaured as that means I at least spent some time present in the moment and not glued to my phone.

Carl also gave a pret­ty excel­lent talk on what life after FIRE looks like. Don’t let him fool you when he says he does­n’t do well speak­ing to peo­ple — he crushed it!

Physi­cian on FIRE, Chad Car­son, Tan­ja, Antho­ny, Cait, and Carl were the main speak­ers and gave real­ly awe­some talks that left a lot of peo­ple in atten­dance with mul­ti­ple things to think about. Kids, real estate, life after FI, #min­i­mal­ism, and being more present in life were some of the top­ics dis­cussed.

After the chats we all sat around and twid­dled our thumbs while star­ing at each oth­er for the rest of the week­end.

Just kid­ding!

We were at a beau­ti­ful retreat cen­ter on the bor­der of Min­neso­ta and Wis­con­sin, so there was plen­ty to do out­side. Bas­ket­ball, vol­ley­ball, fris­bee, foot­ball, corn hole, canoe­ing and hik­ing were just some of the many activ­i­ties we could do.

That is my boyfriend and Noah play­ing corn hole/bags. Don’t play bags against Noah. He will utter­ly destroy you. Don’t say I did­n’t try to warn you.

I can also say I canoed to a dif­fer­ent state, which is some­thing I can’t say I can do every­day. The weath­er was beau­ti­ful and the com­pa­ny engag­ing (if not a lit­tle heavy to have 3 adults in one canoe because we def­i­nite­ly got stuck on more than one sand­bar…). I don’t get much time to hang out with friends so I enjoyed every minute of it!

We also had a fun time play­ing games inside after the sun went down. My boyfriend and I learned how to play Euchre, which we were told is a True Mid­west­ern game. All I know is my old lady tri­fec­ta is now com­plete — cat, euchre, and knit­ting. I’ll get a sweet wheel­chair one of these days. In blue!

We also played oth­er card drink­ing games and the clas­sic Cards Against Human­i­ty. I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in a loooon­ngggg time. Nights like those are good for the soul. And when else can you see PoF look­ing goofy by pulling the back of his shirt up on his head? Or Miss Mazu­ma get­ting sil­ly? It helps every­one to remem­ber blog­gers are real peo­ple too!

I was def­i­nite­ly sad to leave every­one on Mon­day, but a lot of the atten­dees at this Camp FI were local to the area, so we’ll be able to meet up eas­i­er than is the case with some of the oth­er events I’ve been too. A good chunk of the non-local atten­dees I’ll see soon at Fin­Con, so it’s hard to be super sad about leav­ing!

Spe­cial thanks goes to Young FIRE Knight and Reach­ing for FI for mak­ing this week­end extra awe­some! You rock!

Thanks for read­ing! Will you go to a Camp FI event next year? Have you been to one before?