As the pandemic continues and our available activities remain more limited, there is one bright spot. Well, one mostly bright spot that occasionally causes unreasonable pain and suffering. Gish, the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt, is a week long team adventure full off possibility and occasional moments of despair.

I tackled this topic previously in my A to Z Challenge post: K is for Kindness and other Random Acts. That post focused on all the good that Gish does. This post is an attempt to explain Gish in a concise and clear way that will translate to the masses. It’s not as easy as it sounds even for those of us that self identify as geeks and tear up when we hear the Gish rallying cry of “Death to Normalcy”. It’s all still pretty darn confusing.

How did I stumble upon Gish?

I love my fandoms and my favorite has always been the television show Supernatural. Five years ago, I followed the escapades of the Winchester Brothers and Castiel all the way to Las Vegas for a four day Supernatural Convention. While most of my time was spent in panel sessions and waiting in line for nerve racking photo ops, I noticed a small table in the hall set up with information on Gish, which was called Gishwhes at the time. It was my first exposure to this strange new world. Honestly, I still didn’t quite understand it but I wanted to give it a try.

When I returned home, I signed up for the scavenger hunt which takes place every year during the first week of August. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Since we’re mid-hunt this year, I can’t reveal too much. It’s one of the rules. Things stay fairly hush-hush until the end of the week when the flood gates open and us Gishers are so excited to share what we accomplished on no sleep and too much caffeine that it might be a little much for the uninitiated to process.

I can share that this post is in response to one of our hunt items this year and while we are not allowed to share any creations during the hunt, occasionally an item or two does include an associated Social Media post. You can get a glimpse of me sporting some mighty impressive evergreen eyebrows in this Instagram Post.

I think this Instagram image best explains Gish.

It is a week of creativity where you challenge yourself and achieve things you didn’t think possible. While billed as a scavenger hunt, the list of week long activities is far more expansive. Gish pushes you to think and act outside the norm in an inclusive and welcoming environment.

Five years into Gish and it remains one of my favorite weeks of the year. You know how people say that happiness can be found when you can get so engaged in doing something that time disappears? That is how the whole week of Gish is for me.