Blue Lake Memories
My girls made me stay in the bathroom for ten minutes before sending someone to lead me back to the cabin. We made very exaggerated small talk on the walk back through the trees as though there was nothing going on, although we all knew there was. When we reached the cabin, they threw open the door, pulled me in, and proceeded to serenade me with a parody of Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway". It was silly, filled with references only we understood, and incredibly off-key. Halfway through, I wanted to cry, but there was more. They made a neon green "Early Birthday" card (VERY early, since my birthday's not until November), bought me a Blue Lake shirt that they all signed, and filled a Blue Lake mug with Skittles, M&Ms, and AirHeads. Then they presented me with a picture of WonderWoman.
"See? I gave her green eyes and brown hair like you," one of them told me.
"And her suit is blue with white and black because you like blue and play the piano," another said. Hugs were frequent, and all of us started crying. Later that night, I still had to put my stern "teacher voice" on and tell them to please stop giggling and go to bed. I smiled in the dark after I said it, though. To think that I almost didn't come to Blue Lake this summer.
Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp sends posters advertising the job opportunity of cabin counselor to my school ever year. Nobody I asked had ever done it, though. I sent in my application not expecting much, and when they didn't respond after a few months, I made plans to spend the summer with my parents in California.
Getting an e-mail to schedule the Blue Lake interview was a surprise. I should have said, "No, I already have plans for the summer. I don't need to do an interview." I didn't, though. The day of the interview arrived, and I was awoken from a deep slumber to a Blue Lake representative on the phone asking if we could reschedule because the representative was sick. I should have said, "There's no need to reschedule. I can't take the job." Again, though, I said okay and rescheduled, still with the intention of saying a polite no.
Then came the frantic call from my mother, "The housing situation we had set up fell through yesterday. We can ask around, but you might want to think more seriously about going to camp." Remarkably, I felt no shock or anger over this sudden change, only a deep sense of peace. I knew God was working. None of this could be coincidence. When the Blue Lake representative called again, I was enthusiastic and rightly so. The world and schedule they described to me sounded fantastic. A day letter, they offered me the job via e-mail and I accepted.
"See? I gave her green eyes and brown hair like you," one of them told me.
"And her suit is blue with white and black because you like blue and play the piano," another said. Hugs were frequent, and all of us started crying. Later that night, I still had to put my stern "teacher voice" on and tell them to please stop giggling and go to bed. I smiled in the dark after I said it, though. To think that I almost didn't come to Blue Lake this summer.
Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp sends posters advertising the job opportunity of cabin counselor to my school ever year. Nobody I asked had ever done it, though. I sent in my application not expecting much, and when they didn't respond after a few months, I made plans to spend the summer with my parents in California.
Getting an e-mail to schedule the Blue Lake interview was a surprise. I should have said, "No, I already have plans for the summer. I don't need to do an interview." I didn't, though. The day of the interview arrived, and I was awoken from a deep slumber to a Blue Lake representative on the phone asking if we could reschedule because the representative was sick. I should have said, "There's no need to reschedule. I can't take the job." Again, though, I said okay and rescheduled, still with the intention of saying a polite no.
Then came the frantic call from my mother, "The housing situation we had set up fell through yesterday. We can ask around, but you might want to think more seriously about going to camp." Remarkably, I felt no shock or anger over this sudden change, only a deep sense of peace. I knew God was working. None of this could be coincidence. When the Blue Lake representative called again, I was enthusiastic and rightly so. The world and schedule they described to me sounded fantastic. A day letter, they offered me the job via e-mail and I accepted.
I am so glad I came. Blue Lake is one of those places you can't imagine existing until you've spent a summer here. There are so many things I will miss about it all, from the unending sand and the beautiful lake, to the way the sun greets me through the trees as I walk to breakfast. I will miss the many inside jokes between counselors and all the crazy songs we sing. Most of all, I will miss the 44 young ladies I had in my cabin throughout these two months.
My first session was a joy to be around. They woke up smiling, helped me remember what the rules were, and bought me carnations before they left. Every night, we did relaxation exercises together and someone sang a lullaby. We all loved Sherlock. Every morning with the girls was exciting because it was my first time at camp and they made it all so much fun. Each one of them had their own memorable quirks: one could speak Vulcan, another loved OneDirection, and another rarely slept. We wrote an incredible Epic Legend about our Unit Director that had the other cabins falling off their benches with laughter. I could not have been more proud of my girls. The night before we parted, they stayed up late writing long, long, notes to one another and to me. All in all, they were outstanding.
Second session was crazy in the best way possible. On the first day, we discovered a snake living under my hut and had a little "freak out" moment. Then we shooed the snake away with a broom and decided to name him. After this, it became habitual for me to say, "Good morning, Severus Snake," every day when I left the hut, just in case he was underneath our porch listening. The girls and I had some good talks about how we need to respect boys by -ahem- not talking about how "hot" they are. We also had our own gang sign called the Happy Llama/ Sad Llama. If we wanted to show respect to a cabin mate we kissed the three fingers of our left hands and held them up while humming the four note theme from Hunger Games. I gained more notes for my growing collection and found more company in the Sherlock fandom.
Third session completely rocked my world, as you can see from the above description of my very Early Birthday card and the song they wrote me. They took to naming everything around the cabin after they found out about Severus the Snake. Pretty soon I came home to find them talking about Nathan the Black Squirrel and Sean the Chipmunk. Oh, and yes, we did sit around fan-girling about Sherlock.
My fourth session was made up of mostly first years and a few returners. I still remember one of the first conversations we had with them: it was about Sherlock and Psych. This group was probably one of the chattiest and craziest ones I had had yet. In one day, they spilled red juice all over everything, lost half of their badges, and broke one of the lights in our cabin...and they somehow managed to make all of those things ridiculously funny. During concerts with this group, I made weird faces at them and danced my hands on my lap to the music to help them stay awake. At dinner one night, we had a lesson on how to eat apples and Dad the Policeman told us why she doesn't like bananas: "When I see dem brown bananas in dat hanging da-vice, let me tell you girlfriend..." To promote my authority at the dinner table, I warned them "I eat trees every day," before biting the head off of a stick of broccoli. They definitely obey me after that. In the end, watching them go was very hard. They all became very special to me.
It's hard to describe how special Blue Lake is. One of my girls expressed it well when she said, "I've never been around so many nerds at the same time." I think that's the reason it was so much fun. I have never been in a place where my brand of music/books/art nerd-ness was considered cool. It was an incredibly shot of confidence to have girls listen to my opinions about art or music (or Sherlock) and then hear them say, "Rachel, that's so awesome." My time at Blue Lake was great, but it wasn't because of me. It was all those girls that lived in Bachman Cabin with me and told me their stories. Thanks for making this such a great summer, ladies!
My first session was a joy to be around. They woke up smiling, helped me remember what the rules were, and bought me carnations before they left. Every night, we did relaxation exercises together and someone sang a lullaby. We all loved Sherlock. Every morning with the girls was exciting because it was my first time at camp and they made it all so much fun. Each one of them had their own memorable quirks: one could speak Vulcan, another loved OneDirection, and another rarely slept. We wrote an incredible Epic Legend about our Unit Director that had the other cabins falling off their benches with laughter. I could not have been more proud of my girls. The night before we parted, they stayed up late writing long, long, notes to one another and to me. All in all, they were outstanding.
Second session was crazy in the best way possible. On the first day, we discovered a snake living under my hut and had a little "freak out" moment. Then we shooed the snake away with a broom and decided to name him. After this, it became habitual for me to say, "Good morning, Severus Snake," every day when I left the hut, just in case he was underneath our porch listening. The girls and I had some good talks about how we need to respect boys by -ahem- not talking about how "hot" they are. We also had our own gang sign called the Happy Llama/ Sad Llama. If we wanted to show respect to a cabin mate we kissed the three fingers of our left hands and held them up while humming the four note theme from Hunger Games. I gained more notes for my growing collection and found more company in the Sherlock fandom.
Third session completely rocked my world, as you can see from the above description of my very Early Birthday card and the song they wrote me. They took to naming everything around the cabin after they found out about Severus the Snake. Pretty soon I came home to find them talking about Nathan the Black Squirrel and Sean the Chipmunk. Oh, and yes, we did sit around fan-girling about Sherlock.
My fourth session was made up of mostly first years and a few returners. I still remember one of the first conversations we had with them: it was about Sherlock and Psych. This group was probably one of the chattiest and craziest ones I had had yet. In one day, they spilled red juice all over everything, lost half of their badges, and broke one of the lights in our cabin...and they somehow managed to make all of those things ridiculously funny. During concerts with this group, I made weird faces at them and danced my hands on my lap to the music to help them stay awake. At dinner one night, we had a lesson on how to eat apples and Dad the Policeman told us why she doesn't like bananas: "When I see dem brown bananas in dat hanging da-vice, let me tell you girlfriend..." To promote my authority at the dinner table, I warned them "I eat trees every day," before biting the head off of a stick of broccoli. They definitely obey me after that. In the end, watching them go was very hard. They all became very special to me.
It's hard to describe how special Blue Lake is. One of my girls expressed it well when she said, "I've never been around so many nerds at the same time." I think that's the reason it was so much fun. I have never been in a place where my brand of music/books/art nerd-ness was considered cool. It was an incredibly shot of confidence to have girls listen to my opinions about art or music (or Sherlock) and then hear them say, "Rachel, that's so awesome." My time at Blue Lake was great, but it wasn't because of me. It was all those girls that lived in Bachman Cabin with me and told me their stories. Thanks for making this such a great summer, ladies!
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