It is Monday and I just got back from camp after six weeks. My hope for this summer was that it would be a very growing summer for me.
It's been much more than that.
I came across many new experiences this summer. One, in particular, was my first kiss, the circumstances of which, while far from ideal, at least provided a learning opportunity. I learned that you can't have an intimate experience with a man* (and this can be considered just that), and expect everything to be the same afterward as it was before. I did. I was wrong. I learned. I'm okay. (smiley)
Another learning experience I had was with a girl in my cabin named Julia _____. She was convinced that my sole pleasure in life was to make her feel bad about herself. I'm not the kind of person who usually has that effect on people. As I thought about it, I realized that the desire was not in me to build Julia up, therefore I did not. My usually edifying nature was cancelled out by her nature, whatever it was, and that caused constant tension between us. She constantly made remarks about my intelligence, such as "Lindsay's so smart, let her tell you!" and "We all know you're smart, Lindsay, you don't have to constantly have to prove it to us" and "You make me feel so stupid, just stop!"
I felt very bad about this**, about being labelled as different, about being accused, that I ignored Julia as much as possible - but she was the kind of person who thirsted for attention like we thirst for water. And being ignored, even by me, was more than she could stand.
So we worked things out. Well, I guess you could say we put a patch over our friendship - a patch only thick enough to last until we left camp. And it pretty much worked.
- Yet another lesson of life -
* I don't even call them "men" now!
** Lie.
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