Honestly, as I drove up the mountain in my car this past weekend, I was a little nervous about the experience that was about to ensue. I haven't been the best at keeping up with my camp friends while I was living in Texas.I was a little worried we wouldn't have anything to talk about and sometimes I have a knack for saying awkward things and killing conversations (if you would like to hear some examples of this, just ask).
The weird thing was that when I got together with those girls, after a few catching up conversations, it felt like we had never been apart. There were some other camp things that were harder to get used to, like singing songs all the time and having wet shoes, but it felt completely normal to be in that place with those girls.
Camp brings together lots of different types of people. Take for example one of my good camp friends, Lizzie. Lizzie wears pearls with every outfit.
This weekend I found out that she buys pearl earrings in bulk so that she will always have a pair, in the event that she loses them.
Lizzie is about to join the Junior League. Lizzie was a debutante, I actually went to her ball (this was my first and maybe my last ball). At her ball Lizzie's mom told her one of my favorite deep south words of wisdom " No one likes a drunk Debutante" (isn't that the truth?!?!) I, on the other hand, wear clothes that, more often than not, don't match. One day I want to have honey bees in my yard. I wear weird things in my hair and around my neck (ex: quail feathers and huge butterfly wings). And the older I get them more home-grown I become ( why buy something when you can make it yourself?).
If Lizzie and I had met anywhere but camp I think we might have not given each other a chance. However, within the first few days of meeting each other, back in the day, Lizzie and I discovered we both love birthday cake ice cream, our middle names rhyme and our belly buttons are the same height (discovered while playing limbo). This was enough to encourage a beautiful and lasting friendship.
Oh camp! I don't know how you do it but you cause friendship to spring up in unlikely places. I wish there was something in my grown up life that was like camp. Or I wish there was a reunion every year. I would even face the humiliation of the Reds losing at tug-a-war to the Blues, twice in a row, for another weekend with my camp friends.
1 comment:
Oh Julia! Such a lovely, lovely post (shout-out to Rache Hadle for the fb share)! It's so good to "see" you and all the girls, and I'm even more bummed about missing the reunion now than I was leading up to it.
You're so completely right. I count my CGA summers as the sweetest blessings I've ever received because I, too, made friendships that I don't believe I would ever have made anywhere else or in any other way.
CR sessions, candle lighting, studdle pomping and pee-pee sheets, among so many other things, have an unparalleled and glorious way of uniting all sorts of souls for the most righteous reasons. Thanks for reminding me that the magic of camp is and always will be real :)
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