I went to the camp with two of my friends. I remember getting on the bus, and not wanting to go. I never liked to be away from home. (Let's be real. I needed a lot of my parent's time and attention. They needed and deserved the ten-day break my attending camp gave them.)
My mom thought that if I went with friends, I would have a good time. She was right. The problem was the camp director had other ideas. He thought that the camp was a good place for me to make new friends.
More often than not I was put in a cabin with girls I didn't know. I only got to see my friends at mealtime or during the evening programs. I was so homesick. The camp director would end up calling my parents to pick me up.
When I was in a cabin with my friends I had a great time. I was (and still am) shy. The camp director's focus should have been on making my experience at camp a happy one every year. I could have made new friends while being with my old friends.
I enjoyed making crafts and nature walks. It didn't matter that my effort wasn't very good; I still liked trying to make whatever the craft was. The camp was the first time that I observed a frog being dissected. I felt sorry for the frog. What had he done to deserve such a fate? The camp was where I heard Poe's The Telltale Heart for the first time. Pretty creepy for the wimpy little girl I was back then.
We slept outside under the stars in sleeping bags for one night during our ten-day stay. Ahh, the memories. The ground was cold and hard. I woke up with leaves in my hair. The outhouse? I used it once. That was enough. I waited until we were back in the cabin the next morning.
I brought home a souvenir from camping out. My mom found a half-dead tick in my hair while she was washing it after I got home. She had to cut my hair to get it out. The next year my mom sent a note asking that I not be made to sleep outside. I was not the only one. As it turned out that other kids felt the same way that I did. We camped out inside from that time on.
I was riding a horse with a counselor when the horse stepped into a hole. We both fell off the horse in slow motion. Gotta give props to that counselor. He did his best to keep me from getting hurt. They did not make me ride the horse after that.
I was a little fish. I loved swimming. Put a plastic ring around me and I was off paddling. (I also probably swallowed half of the water in the pool, but that's not the point.) I loved paddling around, putting my face in the water to blow bubbles, and seeing how long I could hold my breath with my head under the water.
My favorite memory of being at camp is getting to use water wings. I was swimming like everyone else with water wings around my arms. The water wings gave me such a sense of freedom in the water. I had never experienced it before and would never experience freedom like that again no matter how many inner tubes, life jackets, (the worst), or plastic rings I would try in the future.
I may not have liked everything about being at camp. Getting to use wings meant; everything to me.
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