I'm not really a monumental person. I've never met a huge celebrity nor have I gone through a life threatening experience. However, sometimes it's the little things that can impact your life in a huge way. I can remember my time at Franco's Summer Camp like it was yesterday and ill probably never forget. I attended Franco's from age seven to thirteen. I can remember the first time I found out I was going to go to summer camp.

I was seven years old, on the verge of turning eight and I had just moved to Mandeville. It was late May so it was hot outside and it was a beautiful day like always during Louisiana summers. I had just moved in and only had one friend. We weren't even fully moved in yet. I was sitting in my kitchen eating a popsicle attempting to cool myself down from the heat. My dad explained to me that I was going to go to Franco's Summer Camp. I don't remember my first thoughts of this statement but I remember after I saw the field trip list I was ready to go. The field trips seemed like so much fun and there was a pool with two water slides so me, being seven years old, of course I wanted to go. Franco's is an athletic summer camp. We played tennis and did fit circuit and went swimming and took field trips. I can't tell you what my first day of Franco's was like because I don't quite remember. I do remember however going the second week camp started so everyone had already made friends. I'm sure I sat alone my first day and didn't talk. But, of course that wouldn't last long. I was in the green group, two groups from the youngest and one group away from the oldest. I was the middle group. It didn't take me long to make friends. My first friends I ever made at camp were Sophia and Amelie they was the first to talk to me, they were nice and we became really good friends right away. I can remember this one time we made a band called the camp butterflies and we performed a song we made up in front of our whole yoga class. My next friend I made was Maggie. I was young for my grade so everyone of my friends were in the oldest group. Maggie and me instantly became best friends. We went together so well and never stopped laughing when we were together. The next people were just my fellow green and purple groupers. Amelie, Seth, Camille, Timmy, Haley, Hunter, Keith and J.T, and Willie. We all spent the next six summers together at Franco's Summer Camp. We all became the closest of friends. We were all so different which made us go together even more. Amelie was the drama queen, she was a ball of drama. She was also very prissy and said what she felt but we all grew to accept it and loved her regardlessly. Seth was younger than all of us and only a little bit bigger than me. He was so hyper and always showed off his "muscles" to us all, he was like our little brother. Camille was the picky one and everything had to go her way but she was also hilarious and we never stopped laughing when we were together. I like to think of Camille as my partner in crime because every time i wanted ice or a jolly rancher she would always sneak out of camp to come and guard. Of course I'd do the same for her. Timmy was my crush (lol) and one of my best friends. He was the cool one that always tried to remain cool even though he wasn't. Hayley was quiet and interesting, she always found beauty and a reason for everything we ever did. She got her feelings hurt easily so we were constantly reassuring her that we weren't really making fun of her. Hunter was another younger one, he is one of the sweetest people you'll ever meet and he would always be there with a joke or something to make you laugh on a bad day of camp. Keith was the oldest of us all, he was without a doubt the funniest reason I have ever met. She was constantly making everyone laugh doing ridiculous things. He was only in camp with us for three years though because as soon as turned fourteen he became a C.I.T (counselor in training). J.T was the Ms. Charlotte's son, and we constantly teased him for being a momma's boy. He was another quiet type and soft spoken. Next was Willie. Willie was 3 grades older than all of us but he was super young for his grade. He got in trouble a a lot and wasn't necessarily a rule follower but he had a very genuine heart. He had been going to the camp longer than anyone, he'd been there since he was 4 years old. He was always the peace maker and gave the best solutions to every problem. Finally there was me. I was the youngest besides Hunter and Seth, I was also the smallest and everyone saw me as a litter sister and all of their responsibilities were to watch over me. It got annoying but I would have to accept that I was the little one that moved up from the green group when everyone else was in purple. I know now that it was all in good meaning. I wouldn't trade this group of people for anything. At Franco's you didn't have to look pretty or act different and no one ever made fun of you because we were all really weird. Of course I'm sure most of that came along with us being ten years old. Franco's was like our own world. The camp director, Ms. Charlotte was like our summer mom and Papa smurf was like having your grandpa best friend there at all times, and the employees all loved us.

They had this adrenaline rush there and it was a blow up jumping thing. I was an obstinate course with a slide and tunnels and climbing. It was literally the most fun thing ever. But of course we ever followed to rules when on it. We would played territory and we would all have different countries with a ruler and soldiers and the point of the game was to invade other territories. It was one of the many games we made up in our seven years there. The gym always smelled like sweat and chlorine and French fries, but its really not as bad as you think. The food there was remarkable, my favorite was the chicken fingers and the Alfredo pasta. It was the best. My favorite snack they would make was pudding and vanilla wafers. Everyone else hated it but I would always beg Keith, my counselor to make it because I loved it.

The water slides were the best part about swim time. There was a tunnel one that was super dark and fast. There was also an open one that didn't go as fast but lasted a lot longer. After a few summers the water slide got boring to us to we had to make up our own rules. To go down the water slide you had to use a mat with a sipper side that would make you go down fast. But we of course being the veterans of the camp and thinking we could do whatever we want we but the non slippery side on the bottom. We would pick the strongest person to go down first and stop themselves on the slide. Then we would wait until the lifeguard gave us the signal and we would go and stop ourselves right behind the first person. We would end up coming down with about seven people in a line all at the same time. Of course we got yelled at for it but of course we did it Asian and again.

Four summers had passed and we were all 11-13 and in 4th- 6th grade. We were more grown up although our maturity levels didn't seem to follow with us to Franco's that summer. I can remember this first day of summer camp perfectly. It was week two because I made it a tradition to never go week one. I walked it late, as usual. Ms. Charlotte was talking so I couldn't talk to anyone until she was done. I notice someone knew this year. She was a girl, my age. Her name was Rachael which bothered me because I was the only Rachel in the group for years. She was wearing a huge brown bow which I thought was weird. I asked my friend Maggie about her and she said that she was new and she came the week before and they had been hanging out. I remember the first time I talked to her was in the arts and crafts room. From then on we were known as Rachel and Rachael because we seriously didn't leave each others sides. We became the best of friends it was un real. Rachael was the type to freak out about a lot and she was very opinionated. We teased her a lot because she was the "new girl" and we had to mess with her a little bit. She didn't go to same school as me so during the school year we asked everyday on the phone. She became part of our summer group that summer of course we had to initiate her. One time at lunch Keith started a pizza fight and so we all threw pizza at Rachael and then at each other. We were all in there for the next hour laughing and picking everything up. We all went through a lot that summer together. Our camp director who had been with us since we were little kids was replaced with Ms. Cammie who we all automatically hated. She fired one of our favorite counselors ever and they added a new group. The blue group. Also our friend Maggie's school best friend's mom died after battling with cancer for twelve years. We all over came it though of course were all there to support one another. We finished our last two summers after that making seven summers. The camp number started getting smaller and we were all getting older. Our time at Franco's would now come to an end. My time at Franco's taught me so much. I grew up with everyone there and they gave me an amazing childhood. I truly am the person I am today because of the employees campers and my friends at Franco's. I'll never forget all of the times I had there. All the field trips and pool times. They taught me how to be a good friend, a good person and a good team mate.