I’ve made it through an entire quarter. Report cards are out, and no parent has called to yell at me (yet). No one has dropped out, and I’ve only considered kicking students out of my class a few times. Marks of success.
We had fall break a couple of weeks ago. If I don’t see fall foliage, my sadness lingers for a good ten months, so I threw some clothes and my camera in the car before school on Friday and ended up in Asheville on Saturday morning. I’ve been to Asheville 7 or 8 times, but never in the fall. The leaves weren’t quite ready for me, so I had to climb some mountains and find them.
Right after I got home, I left for Field Studies. Each grade at the school does something together as a group immediately following fall break, and for 9th grade it’s a 2-night, 3-day camping trip. As one of the 9th grade advisors (and one of only 2 available females), I was enlisted to go.
We loaded the school bus on Wednesday morning with the 49 students, 4 adults, and enough luggage to survive for several weeks in Siberia, then drove the 2 and 1/2 hours to a YMCA camp on the edge of the Smokies.
A brief history of my past camping experience:
-Once my childhood best friend and I slept in a tent in her front yard for reasons that I can’t fully articulate. We were about 10 feet from her front door, and we still got scared when her cat started making noises outside. I recall some friendship-bracelet-making.
-My cousins, aunt, and I spent a night in a tent in their front yard (also for reasons unknown). Though I seem to recall getting tired of it and going back to the house before bedtime.
-A few of my best friends and I went camping once during high school. We slept in a 3 room tent but all ended up in the same room because we may or may not have been nervous wimps. One of the friend’s parents were in a cabin next door, so we could go inside whenever we wanted.
That’s it.
Thankfully, Field Studies was also the wimp version of “camping,” for which I am grateful. We were in open-air cabins instead of tents, which means that there were bunk beds and walls but only screens on the doors and windows. There were bathrooms in the cabins which reminded me of the bathrooms that high schools have underneath their footballs stadiums. I slept the 2 nights in a cabin with a dozen 14-year-old girls, wearing 6 layers of clothes, trying not to freeze, yelling for everyone to be quiet, and listening to chatter that left me wondering if I was ever actually a 14-year-old girl myself. I finally decided that I wasn’t. I think ages 13-15 I skipped.
I never went to traditional summer camp as a kid, though I always wanted to. My summers were filled with church retreats, choir tours, and mission trips instead, so the only camps I’ve ever visited have been religiously affiliated. I looked for religion at the camp and found it in the cross on the dining hall wall and the “blessings” we sang before we ate. I have a theory that in The South, every school and camp is secretly a Christian one.
Some camping highlights:
-The raisins in the granola
-The grapes on the salad bar (which I subsisted on)
-Canoeing. Watching the students flip their canoes. Remaining securely in my canoe.
-Visiting with coworkers (Thank you, coworkers.)
-“Rock” poker with the boys. Because desperate times.
-The times when I sat close enough to the fire to feel my toes
-The times when no wild animals came into the cabin through our non-locking door
-Rocking chairs
-The time when the workers finally brought the water coolers out 4 hours after we arrived (after a couple of us had already braved a few desperate sips from the sink)
-The time when I did not have to sleep in a hammock between bunk beds
-This guy
-This view
I got back to my house on Friday, and a few hours later my mom and sister arrived, excited for the Bell Buckle Arts and Crafts Fair. It's not just a normal arts and crafts fair. It's an arts and crafts fair on a scale you've yet to ever witness. Imagine Mardi Gras but in a miniature town with fudge and fair food instead of alcohol and cheerful middle-aged women instead of drunken tourists. We had to arrive at 7:30 in the morning so we didn't get stuck in traffic trying to park for an hour. My mom and sister bought home decorations. I considered buying a hedgehog.
And now that I've experienced Field Studies and the Craft Fair, I feel that I've made it through initiation. My reward is Halloween candy and three weeks until Thanksgiving break.
