As a shy child just finishing up my first year of elementary school, this was my first impression of camp: "It's called Camp Poison and you're going to hate it!"
I had assumed that this upcoming Summer was going to be like every other — my older siblings would go off to camp and I was going to spend my days splashing with my friends at the neighborhood pool. Instead, I was left in disbelief that my mom was sending me to day camp, where I was positive I was going to have a miserable time.
After a few rounds of tears, my exasperated mom dropped those daunting words. She quickly explained that she was being sarcastic and that it's the exact opposite: Summer camp is an amazing opportunity that I was lucky to get the chance to experience.
While my mom has been correct on more than one occasion in my life, she's never been more right than she was in that moment. From the second I walked into "Camp Poison" (it was actually called Camp Imagination and took place in my elementary school gymnasium), I was hooked. Summer camp was about trying new things, making new friends, and getting messy in the process.
Over the years, I attended Girl Scout horseback riding sleep-away camp, art and drama sessions, outdoor zip-lining adventures, waterskiing and wakeboarding clinics, as well as a special weekly "camp" where we went to different amusement parks every day. And in addition to the memories, grass stains, and endless s'mores, here are the seven unexpected things that I got from attending camp as a child.
I had the opportunity to build my own community: In school, I was always someone else's little sister. But because I was going to camps with different sessions that matched my interests every Summer, I was always meeting new groups of people and establishing new friendships built on my own. I wasn't another sibling following in a brother's footsteps, and I never went into the new situations with an older pal by my side. I made my own evaluations, judgments, and community at camp on my own.