It seemed like a good idea at the time when I signed up for Gishwhes (aka GISH in its current incarnation, or the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt). I had heard rumors about the week long scavenger hunt for months from various Supernatural fan sites, and I wanted to see what the fuss was all about. Fast forward to five years later and GISH is one of the highlights of my year. I’ve met friends I never would have connected with otherwise. I’ve learned how to add music to and edit videos. I’ve left kind notes on stranger’s cars, gone panhandling in a public fountain, created a suburban neighborhood for birds, done portraits of inspiring people, learned how to use twitter, interviewed my grandmother, and mastered my aversion to being in photos.
Sure, a little unreasonable pain and suffering happens along the way (dammit Misha!) when you are pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. Or using way too much hot glue, beans, skittles, pet hair, plastic bags, tampons, stormtrooper costumes and kale than can be healthy. Who knew that boiling down skittles in water to create paint could ruin a pot? Or that creating a dot to dot image from a famous painting was a multi-day eye numbing process? But the grumbling is fun too, and many memories are made that you can revisit again and again.
So give GISH a try, then recruit your friends, family, frenemies, descendants, and co-workers. I promise you won’t regret it. Or maybe you will. But you definitely won’t forget it.
