They say Girl Scouts prepares you for life in many ways. The purpose of Girl Scouts is to build girls of confidence and character. Part of the programming in Girl Scouts is geared toward preparing girls for the academic and career-oriented success. For me, that meant attending a private university. Girl Scout camp was, particularly, what prepared me for this, and oftentimes in the oddest ways.

1. Communal bathrooms are nothing in comparison to latrines.

While everyone else was busy gagging over our communal bathroom situation, I just shuddered as I remembered cleaning the camp latrine during kaper times and realized nothing will quite compare to how disgusting that is. These bathrooms at my school? Fully flushing, cleaned twice daily, and running water. This is LUXURY people.

2. Living in a shoebox dorm room is still more space than living in a platform tent.

And having a roommate or two isn’t anywhere as privacy invading as being cramped into a tent with three to five others. I learned how to manage my personal space pretty well growing up at Girl Scout camp where all you get is your bunk and your trunk.

3. Operating under minimal sleep? Not a problem.

At Girl Scout camp the days were long just like college where all-nighters are inevitable. My biggest regret? Not taking advantage of “rest hour” while at camp, since in college all I want to do is take a nap or two.

4. The buddy system somehow still applies.

My camp counselors used to constantly insist on me dragging a buddy EVERYWHERE at camp. I didn’t know then it would prepare me for college when I drag my best friend out of her dorm room at 2 AM to go to Starbucks with me because I just can’t live without a Strawberry Acai.

5. Strange food in the cafeteria? What’s new.

I love Girl Scout camp, but sometimes the food can be… questionable at best. It’s not necessarily because it is awful even, but it can sometimes get a little bland and repetitive. This, however, was unfortunately exactly the standards my college cafeteria seemed to set for itself as well. At least it felt familiar then.

6. Lifelong, and long distance, friendships have become second nature.

One of the best and most heartbreaking parts of Girl Scout camp was the memories and friendships I made. However, those friends always seemed to live on the other side of the state and I rarely got to see them. Luckily, this has made me a pro for long summers back at home where I don’t get to be near all the lovely people I met at college. Facebook is an amazing tool, people.

7. You’re already used to the weird bonding events.

Every college has those strange events that occur, either sponsored by the school or not. Especially at the beginning of the year, for some reason bouncy castles and silent discos seem to pop up on campus and, while a bit out of place, we, as tired college kids, take advantage. Thanks to Girl Scout camp, I was rather used to the idea of random and spontaneous events like this and it reminded me of my times at camp.