I'm not sure whether it is a good thing or a bad thing that my sister and I created a contract (signed by both of us) that pretty much says whatever happens on our week-long trip to Utah and Arizona stays on said week-long trip. Take it as you will. We know each other and ourselves well enough to know that if either one of us get hungry, hot, tired, injured, or otherwise are miserable, we're liable to take it out on the other one. Couple this with the fact that we're sisters and you have a recipe for words spoken that otherwise would not have smeared the air. Of course, a week in each other's company and the minor detail that we were likely to be hot, hungry, tired, and sore on our four day trek across the Grand Canyon pretty much forced us to come up with a way ahead of time to acknowledge that things might get rough but we still love each other and have each other's best interests at heart, even if we might want to shove each other off a cliff at one point or another. Some of the items listed in our contract have a humorous inflection, but every point listed is serious. Sometimes, you just want to leave your hiking partner or group and wait for them to catch up at a later point, but when you're relying on the other person for safety and motivation leaving them isn't a very smart move. Happily for us, we only "argued" once on the entire adventure, and it was on our way up out of the canyon. The contract worked!
Leave me a comment below and let me know if you would add anything else to this list. I'm open to suggestions!
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