For the first time this summer I decided to go to an a girls sleep away sleep away for three and a half WEEKS!!! It would be my longest time away from home ever and I was freaking out about it for weeks even before it happened. I would worry and worry and eventually it sucked all the fun out of the beginning of my summer. There wouldn’t be a moment in the day where I wasn’t crying or stressing out about camp. I would almost never smile and I couldn’t even do some of my favorite things, like cooking with my grandma and hanging with my family on my favorite island. I was worried that the girls there would make fun of me and I wouldn’t make any friends of have any fun. Pretty unrealistic for summer camp huh?

Then the day came where we packed up all my stuff and drove from my grandparents house in Maine (In approximately one hour and eight minutes) to Camp Runioa, an all girls camp teaching life long skills since 1906. We said hello to the camp director and then went to the shack where I would be staying for the next three and a half weeks. The shack smelled musty but mostly like feet. It was dim in the day time even with the lights on but we were so lucky to have running water and lights, to essential things for girls living together in close quarters. We found that all my stuff was already there, and we started the long process of unpacking. And then it was time to say goodbye, which was probably the hardest thing I had ever done in my life. I was sobbing as I hugged my mom. It felt like I would never ever see them again as I watched them walk all the way up the hill and to the car.

OK, so to be honest the first few days of camp were the worst days of my life. Mostly because we weren’t doing any fun activities. All we were doing was learning all the safety rules of camp, and because everybody in my shack new each other I had no one to talk to. I didn’t speak at all unless I had to and nobody wanted to hang out with be because I was being such a Sad Sally. Until, I tried to talk to some girls and they became my best friends from camp! After that everything got better! I felt like I started to fit in and I got to do horse back riding and tubing and archery and sailing and batik and friendship bracelets and farm and ropes. The list goes on and on. But the point is that little by little, one step at a time my anxiety and homesickness started to go away. I remember one particular time where I like I belonged there was when I went tubing for the first time… I crawled off the speed boat and on to the tube with my friend Acadia, my heart pounding with excitement and fear and got into position.

“Are you guys ready?!” the counselor Karen called from the boat. She was one of my favorite counselors because she was from Ireland so I got to talk to her about all the places I went in Ireland. At this moment she had a bathing suit and shorts on with her long brown hair blowing in the wind.

“Ready!” we called back. And the boat started making our tube fly over the waves and jerk us from side to side. As we went over the wake of the boat I yelled,

“I’m gonna fall off!” and I did. My hands slipped off the handles and flew backwards but in that small moment while I was under water I smiled to myself and thought, I may not like being at camp yet but if I keep smiling and distracting myself I will see mommy and daddy in no time. It worked.

My friends and I talking and waiting for the award ceremony to start

My camp bed with my stuffed animals and pictures of my family.

Riding my favorite horse Rory! He was a very hyperactive horse and he never stopped for anyone, except me!