Tom Vincent Speech

Tom Vincent speech

My name is Tom Vincent and I have something to tell you! Welcome to Calumet Camp.  You are all probably wondering what you are in for by coming here and that is just what I plan to explain to you.

First of all, I will share with you one of my personal anecdotes. I am sure you will be able to learn from my mistakes on my trip from Calumet Camp to Cherry Hill to find some gold. I had decided to travel by myself, thinking that I did not need anyone and that I was strong enough to undertake this journey as a loner but apparently I should have listened to the people from the north. At 7 a.m., I left for a very long walk; it was a great distance although I did not care, as I was convinced that it was not that bad.

In fact, it was an extremely cold day and I began to lose feeling in many parts of my body and my fingers started to become numb. It was impossible for me to take off my mittens because the frost bit so fast. After continuing the route for an hour, I fell into glacial weather and my feet had gotten wet, it was very difficult to get out but I decided to stay calm. After that I was even colder than before, so lighting a fire was necessary in my state of mind. I started by collecting some bark, lit it with matches, and took good care of it. Nonetheless, as I was adding the twigs to the fire, I did not know that taking them had troubled the tree’s balance, which resulted in an avalanche that immediately put the fire out.

At that point I understood how dangerous it was and decided to construct another one. Yet I did not know that I was unable to build a fire with numb hands so I burnt myself with the match. Then, I worked out getting feeling back in my body by overcoming the pain in my hands with the new fire. After five minutes, the fire was steady. Afterwards, I decided to change my shoes and socks for dryer ones. That night, I never shut my eyes and stayed near the fire. The next day, after what seemed to be an eternity, I finally arrived at the camp.

As you can imagine, I learned some important lessons from this experience. Let me start with the skills and knowledge needed to survive in this camp. First, you will need to be physically and mentally fierce; as you understood through my story, not everything is easy and a lot of obstacles are encountered. Also, never travel alone, or you will commit the same mistake as I did. Additionally, you must walk quickly as well as avoid stopping and above all, do not travel in the evenings, as it is not safe. Furthermore, it would be beneficial for you to light a fire and keep it alive so that you keep warm, as it is extremely cold. For this same reason, you will also need to be systematically covered from head to toe, which will help to avoid any kind of frostbite. Moreover, you will need to be very attentive to where you are setting foot, as not everything is what it seems to be; you wouldn’t want to walk on a small pile of snow and actually fall into a very deep pool of cold water would you? Next, you will have to know where it is possible to build a fire and the places that are unadvised such as a tree with snow that can produce an avalanche and extinguish your fire. Also, don’t wear wet clothing in cold weather; you should always bring a change of clothes as well as an extra pair of shoes just in case. You will also need to know how to cure frostbite in the case that you or one of your colleagues is affected by it. My last bit of advice is that you should plan ahead, this way you will be ready for anything that happens, such as not having any matches to light a fire or even forgetting to bring food.

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