I know all of you are dying for another of my "Is it true?" Tuesday stories, but I'm not going to do those anymore.
Why? Because I hate guessing games! I don't like to guess whether something is true or not, so why would I put you through that? Besides, it's not like it's really hard to figure out if it's true or not. I'm not all that good at making up stories about myself.
I'm just going to tell it like it is, straight up, truth and nothing but the truth.
Henceforth, Tuesdays around "Not About Me" will be known as Too True Tuesday(s).
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I'm sure everyone has them, those experiences from their childhoods that have left scars on their psyche, twisted ugly shiny white scars that they don't want anyone to see. Well, at least I hope I'm not the only one.
Ever been to Summer camp? I went once, I think I was about 10 years old at the time. It was Forest Cliff Camp, a Christian camp that all the young peoples from our church loved to go to. I only went once, and once was enough.
My sister Linda and I went for the week, and I remember I signed up for a bunch of activities months before we actually went. I wanted to go horseback riding, I wanted to go hiking, canoeing, and I wanted to try archery. Yet somehow, the only thing I ended up doing that I wanted to do was canoeing. I think they tried to keep girls out of the more "tough" and "manly" things, and I got stuck in the bracelet weaving and other "girl bonding" things that were dumb and I hated.
I was (and still am) a bit socially awkward, and it wasn't because I was home-schooled, I was just oblivious to the fact that certain habits of mine were "uncouth". Such as wanting to hang out with my little sister, who was in a different cabin than I was. The other girls who shared my cabin thought I was a "loser" because I actually liked my sibling, and didn't tell her to get lost when she'd come and knock on our door.
Now, I did make a couple mistakes.. like changing clothes in front of the window. I was just barely starting to develop, and I was not shy at all about it yet, but the other girls were horrified that I changed my top in front of the window -that had curtains, and was only about 5 inches wide- instead of hiding at the back of the cabin. Their horrified gasps were humiliating, and the thought of them laughing at me still stung years later.
Only one of the girls was really nice, she was truly kind to me when everyone else was either indifferent or cruel. For the life of me, I can't remember her name! She gave me her address at the end of the week, and I promised to write her, but I LOST it and since then I've wondered what happened to her, how her life is now... I'm sorry, girl whose name I can't remember! I just want to thank you for being nice to me!
Oh, oh, then, there was the big dumb lovestruck ugly doofus that wouldn't leave me alone! I guess he thought I was cute or something, because this 13 year old kid kept following me around for the whole week, him and his tiny little gnome of a friend (no wonder I hate gnomes). They would cat call me, and whistle, and tell me I was hot, which was mortifying because I wasn't even interested in boys yet and it was truly, truly shocking to me! The second to last day we were there, I was walking to the bathroom and they followed me, the big dumdumb saying he wanted to kiss me, and I gave him the finger. It was the first time in my life I ever gave anyone the finger (I didn't even know what it meant, I just knew it was bad!). I told him if he kissed me I'd kick him in the crotch. He laughed at me, but he left me alone! I was fed up and I think he knew it.
The last embarrassing thing I remember was being kissed goodnight by the camp counselor. She was nice and all, and she was just trying to make me feel at home, but I was TEN. My own Mom didn't tuck me into bed and kiss me goodnight when I was TEN! Stupid lady.
Well, that was my experience with Summer camp. It wasn't all bad, but it wasn't all good. I definitely never asked to go back.
That's it for this week's edition of Too True Tuesday!
~Sarah
Ummmm... yikes!!
ReplyDeleteI had a much better summer camp experience than you, I guess. ;)
I didn't do no stinkin' bracelet weaving, that's for sure!
I like True Tuesdays!!
ReplyDeleteI like the stories....
I didn't much like camp either. Girls weren't mean to me... but I still didn't like it.
Hate that they assume girls want to do girlie stuff, laughing that you were kissed by your counciler. YUCK.
ReplyDeleteI think I rememeber that camp?!
Love the stories Sarah. :)
My memories of the camp:
ReplyDelete- I remember being socially awkward, too, and that's why I spent a lot of time in Sarah's cabin.
- I spilled a jug of juice on this girl from my cabin at lunch, and I was absolutely horrified, especially because she was so nice about it. She was all like "it's okay" and I was like "I'm dying here". But anyway.
- My cabin counselor kissed me too! Ugh! Right on the top of the head as we were walking back after listening to the story about the do-zo-fog and the gee-zo-feese. And the hu-zo-funter, etc.
- I did archery, but it wasn't that fun. It was small and annoying. And there were other people. Not fun at all.
- The awesome counselor whose name I forget was awesome. She took us into the woods and told us how to use compasses, and how to make a fire, and then we had roasted bananas with chocolate chips and marshmallows - because you can find that in the forest when lost if you forage hard enough. Seriously though, she was awesome. But I forget her name.
- I was scared to death of the water.
- That girl WAS nice. What was her name? ...Jenny? o.0 I don't remember. It was too bad you lost her address.
- They made us sing! Around the campfire!! Why could I not just listen? -_-
The worst thing about all of your bad experiences is that we tried to give you a gift of time spent at camp. We thought we were doing the best thing for you. Then we found out, to our chagrin, that you really didn't like it much.
ReplyDeleteSigh.
Goes to show you that the best laid plans...
Yea, but I loved the awesome counselor whose name escapes me. She was worth it :) .
ReplyDeleteWV: abluousi. Definition: Word used to describe something that is extremely difficult to spell, as well as being nigh unpronounceable.