#camp thoughts

[keebwee]

i think about how i lived with like 20-30 young queer people for a week straight (i am a young queer) and our conversations consistently used words and jokes we all deemed goofy

me: god i am so tired

friend: go eep

friend 2: eepy moment

yippee was a HUGE thing there. one person would say YIPPEEE and everyone would erupt in yippees the counselors were so confused

fire lake was also a really funny joke. people were told they could get kicked out of camp and it ended up turning into two campers saying being kicked out means youd be sent to fire lake. same with strikes n stuff. people got strikes for the stupidest things so we kept saying that as a joke (along with a finger waggle)

someone: (penis joke)

another person: THATS IT STRIKE THREE YOURE GOING TO FIRE LAKE

or someone would genuinely get in trouble (the director would ask to speak with them privately) and theyd just go "abt to be sent to fire lake guys"

we also convinced some of the counselors to tell us bedtime stories which usually had nice morals and stuff and then WE'D tell a story and its literally twilight or the outsiders but with animals. i told one about a very stupid idiot guy being hit by a train

i did this last year too but i think in terms of experience with campers, this year was better. the organization and format of the week sucked this year, but the campers and the other counselors (not the damn director we all did not like them) really made it better everyone was so silly

overall love yall ik some of u guys follow me and might see this <33

[wild-west-wind]

I don’t get people who work in education who lavish praise on kids who follow rules and give correct answers. Without fail my favorite students have always been hyperactive, outrageous, dramatic, disorderly, or otherwise fantastic little messes. I value a good attitude in my students. I’m always more excited by good questions than good answers. ‘Smart’ kids are a dime a dozen, give me a kid who is excited to be there any day.

[everything-changes-once-again]

I feel so much lighter than I did a year ago and it’s not just in my head too, my coach commented on it after watching my workout yesterday. She said I look so much more like me, the real me, and she can tell I’m in a totally different place than I was at camp last year. And if other people can see it too and it’s not just me then maybe maybe maybe I am finally better

[prisoneroftheheavens]

This weekend has been a disaster. I am working on a camp, it is stressful as hell, I am on my limits all the time and we eat five times a day. And here is SO cold and I just eat and eat and eat and eat to feel warm and get the energy although I don't need that much calories to work. How am I ever going to replace this?

[mycrown-mykingdom]

I love camp so much. I literally have no cares in the world here. I wish I could stay. I wish I didn’t have to leave and go back to the real world. Why can’t everywhere I got be this peaceful and great? Why can’t camp come with me? The really only thing I could do with out is the exhaustion it brings on. I’m in so much pain, but also is it all just psychological? Am I really in this amount of pain and I don’t feel it because I have no one that understands at school? Am I more in tune with my body because there is literally no one around to judge? It’s happened before. I don’t see where now could change it…

[onsatinwings]

Probable Camp Thoughts: Day 6

Tonight is the night of the banquet!! The last time I was at camp I was on the banquet planning committee and we literally did nothing until the very last minute, some of us even sacrificed our free time to finish up the decorations and stuff.

Now let me tell you how I, Cait, at age 15 in the year 2014, ruined the banquet by turning it into Homestuck.

On Monday of camp we first met up with the group we joined. I was lucky enough to find a spot on the banquet crew because it’s one a lot of the seniors like because they don’t have to do much. ANYWAY our counselors running the group decided that for our first meeting, we should decide on our theme since we only had four days to put together everything, the food, the soundtrack, the decorations, etc. So the oldest counselor that I have ever met in my entire life, who to my knowledge had gone to this camp as a camper, a staff member, or a counselor every summer since he was 14, cared a lot about the banquet turning out nicely. So he pulled out a huge binder filled with all the panflets put together for just about every high school camp since 1987. We flipped through them with little care, since it was a repeat of every high school prom theme seen in modern movies and television. Then I looked down at my shirt to see the virgo horoscope sign to which my birth did not align, and got struck with an idea. A night under the stars. No one else really seemed to care about choosing a theme, so it was picked without much discussion. The next days of camp followed, choosing the menu for the night, picking who would emcee the entire event, and DECORATING. Now, since the inception of this theme, I had one idea. Getting the zodiac signs taped on the windows, along with the constellation. It had stars, it had lowkey Homestuck, it was perfect. One senior much better at drawing than me followed my instructions of making the signs all the way from Aries to Pisces.

On Friday night, I anxiously awaited someone to notice the horrible fandom undertones I had strategically placed across all the windows. But no one cared. Because there was a sideways 69 next to the cancer constellation.

[onsatinwings]

Probable Camp Thoughts: Day 5

I’m hoping at this point that I’m still having fun, despite the fact that I take a break from everyone daily, directly after lunch to spend time on my own in the cabin writing or knitting. I’ve done it every time I’ve been at camp, simply because my introverted ass can only take so much Camp Funtime™ before it’s ready to break down.

I remember that the first year I went to camp, my counselor walked in on me sitting alone writing at least three days in a row. She had actually gone to the same camp I’m currently at with my mother when they were younger and asked me every time if I wanted to use her cell phone to call my mom, as if I was homesick. However weird my antics were to her, another girl from my cabin was even stranger. For the purpose of security and not embarrassing anyone, we will call her Terry. Terry had gone to this camp since she was in elementary school, but the camps for elementary schoolers were earlier in the year when the bathrooms were cleaner.

One night, I couldn’t sleep and I heard sniffling out on the camp patio. My nosey ass snuck out to find Terry crying and hugging our cabin counselor. I waved to the counselor and sat down next to Terry while explaining that I couldn’t sleep and became concerned as to what was wrong. Now let me tell you before Terry explained it to me in the narration of this story. By Thursday of this camp, Terry, at age 13, had not showered once. Not to mention she had worn the same orange Wheaties shirt daily, reversing whether it was inside or out. Terry’s hair at this point looked like she had jumped in the lake, it was doing that gross thing where it kind of separated into its own chunky strands, and she reeked. Bad.

Terry stuck her head in the crook of my shoulder crying and sniffling all over my tshirt. It was fine, I could deal with this, she was feeling bad and it was the least thing I could do to even attempt to help. It had gotten to the point at camp where the two Best Friends™ in our cabin were making fun of her and yelling for her to take a shower. And to think I even moved bunks so those two could be near each other. Eugh. The counselor and I sat out with Terry for a solid forty minutes, consoling her and seeing under what circumstances she could take a shower. Lo and behold, we calmed her down and she had agreed to take a shower in the nurses office in the morning, and show up late to breakfast.

The very next morning, when Terry showed up in the dining hall, hair dripping and smiling, I swear to you the entire camp breathed a sigh of relief.

[onsatinwings]

Probable Camp Thoughts: Day 3

I remember that the last time I was at camp, I was in a worship group with one of the prettiest seniors I’d ever met. Even though she’s not at camp anymore, I’m kind of hoping she’s on the college staff. She had the curliest short hair and she almost always wore a tank top and flannel, and at breakfast one morning the “praise dance” group that she was in (everyone gets to choose one camp group/club like photography or putting together vespers) had a flash mob. She ended up right next to my table and I literally thought I was gonna die. Good times.