Yes.

Somewhere around the last week of Louisiana I began thinking to myself, was this worth it? How much money did I spend to come here, and what experiences am I missing at home? I tried to calculate how much it cost per day but got bogged down.

Because everything was worth it. Unequivocally.

It was worth it when Cameron walked up to me. I was sitting at my gate in Atlanta, hours to spare before my flight, and he approached me and said, "Are you with the SCA? I see you're wearing the boots." We spent our layover together.

It was worth it when everyone started speaking in Southern accents and pretending to be stupid. "Ma'am, where are the al-monds?" Julia asked a shopper in the grocery store.

It was worth it when Cameron had to leave, and came into our tent at four in the morning. He held each of our hands for a few beats, and then he left.

It was worth it when we drove six hours to a rodeo in Arkansas.

It was worth it when Julia asked me how I was and I started crying.

It was worth it when Jackie began to get sick and asked me to leave work early with her to make sure she didn't pass out. She told me about getting lost. "So I found camp just as my partner was coming back over the bridge and it started to rain. He threw the pulaski in the air. It was supposed to take five hours, and it took us fourteen."

It was worth it when we sat under the highway overpass on a makeshift pier and watched the bayou.

It was worth it when we found an anthill under our tent, nasty red ants whose bites stung and filled with pus.

It was worth it when Ava and Katie and I sat in the backseat and held hands, taking turns sharing things we liked. "I like milk with ice in it." "I like staying awake to watch the sunrise." "I like the gifts my father gives."

It was worth it when we lay down on the rubber gravel at the playground and let Louisiana, its slowness and moisture, seep in.

It was worth it when we drove to Grand Isle State Park, frolicked on the beach for an hour, and had to leave. Tropical depressions coming in and Hurricane Bill behind them.

It was worth it when we were nasty to each other. It was worth it when Katie counted sixty mosquito bites between my shorts and my boots. It was worth it when we ate the most amazing breakfast couscous, and when I hammered with such focus that the sweat falling on the boards didn't make me pause, and when we finished some bridge repairs, and when I saw live oaks.

Even the bad things, people leaving and bruises and smelling like "rotting flesh," as Julia put it--were worthwhile. What is it Willie Stark said? You make the good out of the bad, because there's nothing else to make it out of.