I woke up early on Monday morning, except this time, it wasn’t for school. The whole fifth-grade was going to Camp Ohiyesa for three days. I was so excited!
I jumped out of bed, careful not to wake my sleeping sister, and got all my things ready in a flash. I hurtled down stairs, ate breakfast in a hurry, and clambered back up stairs to brush my teeth. I brought my sleeping bag, flashlight, clothes, boots, water bottle, toiletries, and of course my two favorite stuffed animals, Tiptoe, the brown mouse, and China, the black Webkinz cat, downstairs and placed it by the garage door.
“You ready?” Mom asked.

“Yeah,” I answered.
“Maria,” Dad said, taking a break from his coffee. “Have fun.” I rushed over to him and gave him a big hug. “I love you,” he whispered in my ear.
“I love you too,” I whispered back. Stepping back, I grabbed my tiny My Little Pony backpack from kindergarten. My teachers suggested a small backpack, and I didn’t want to mess with the teachers’ instructions. “Should I get in the car?” I asked Mom.
“Oh!” Mom suddenly remembered something. “Don’t you have to put your stuff in a garbage bag?”
“Oh yeah,” I said. I hadn’t really forgotten. For some reason I didn’t like reminding people about things, and kind of just let them come up. I would have reminded her if she forgot.
Dad and I went in the garage to get the biggest, toughest garbage bag there was. I stored all my belongings in it and let Dad tie the red drawstrings into a neat bow.
“There’s a little bow for you.”
“Thanks,” I said. We both laughed. Excited, I climbed in the back of our big red car I named Clifford, and waited for Mom to get in the drivers seat. She finally came and handed me a roll of masking tape and a Sharpie.
“Put a piece of tape on the bag and then put your name on it,” she instructed. “Ready?” she asked again after I handed her back the tape and Sharpie.
“Uh huh,” I answered, too excited to give a real answer.
“Alright. Let’s go.”
“We’ll miss you!” Dad gave a last call as we started to back out of the garage. “Have fun!” And he proceeded to blow kisses, which I dutifully returned. We’ll miss you. That’s what he said, referring not just to him or Mom, but the whole family, including my two older brothers, my little sister, and my little brother. He spoke for everybody, which means someone might actually enjoy my absence (my little sister, for one, who would enjoy the whole bed to herself), but it was still good to know I was wanted in the family. I’ll miss them too, but then laugh in their faces when I get home to tell them what a good time I had while they were stuck at school.

We arrived at school right on time. The earliest students were waiting in their lines outside to be let in.
Mom walked me up to the fifth grade classrooms, where I found a nametag with a string attached to the top of it placed on my desk. In the left hand corner there was a picture of a buffalo; my group. In the right hand corner there was “Kickapoo”; my cabin, and underneath that “Table #10”. Printed on the top of the card was my name.
The next few minutes were a blur. Everything seems mixed together in my memory. I remember one of my best friends, Alyssa, coming up to me and asking me what group I was in. When I told her, she made a frowny face and told me that she was a wolf. After I told her I couldn’t find anyone else that was a buffalo, she stood on her tiptoes and looked around the room, then grabbed my wrist and started pulling me toward a desk on the other side of the room.
“Come with me,” she said. She led me to a group of girls, who I really wouldn’t consider friends, but maybe acquaintances. Natalie, a quite girl with brown hair, was among them.
“What group are you in?” Alyssa asked, totally unfazed that maybe this group of friends wanted to be left alone. Natalie didn’t seem worried, though.
“Buffalo,” she said.
“Me too!” I said. Someone else, at last! At least there was one person.
After some time and more events that I’m sure took place, we were separated into home rooms and boarded two different buses, one for each homeroom. I sat next to another friend, Sarah.
All the boys in the back of the bus were singing songs. Not just any popular song at the time by Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift, but the popular songs on YouTube. I asked them to sing Trololol. I don’t think they heard me.
When we arrived and got all lined up, some staff members started unloading our stuff. Our job was to keep passing them back until someone claimed their belongings. Again, I forgot exactly how this part worked, but I know for a fact that one of the directors, Chad, told us about the two villages.
There was a girl village and a boy village. The girls were not to go in the boy village. The boys were not to go in the girl village. Each village had four cabins that we would be using - two separate building with three rooms each; the third was for the chaperones - and a bathroom.
After we were told this, we lugged our stuff to our cabins, dropped everything off, and headed for the main building, which was basically a huge cafeteria with steps in front overlooking Fish Lake.
We assembled ourselves on the steps, sitting according to our groups. Chad stood on the porch and introduced himself. After all the staff members introduced their selves (and honestly, I only remember the names of two: Chad and Chad. The second Chad was sometimes referred to as Godzilla, so my classmates decided on calling him Chadzilla), Chad asked, “In the sixth Star Wars movie, what was the planet that the Ewoks lived on?” Fortunately for me, my family was just re-watching those movies. I raised my hand. He called on me.
“Endor,” I said proudly.
“Endor, right,” he said. “So every time you come hear for breakfast or lunch or dinner, I want you to walk through the end door.” I don’t remember the reaction, but I liked it.
More explaining followed. “Don’t go into the cafeteria until we dismiss you” “Hang your backpack on the rack when you go in” and so on. Finally, we were able to go our group leader for activities.
We played a jump rope game where your whole group had to get to the other side while staff members twirled the rope. Each time there was a different requirement. The first time we just had to get from one side to other without touching the rope. Another time, you had to jump in, stay in after jumping twice, and jumping back out. You get the idea.
There was also a game called “Hi-ya!”, “Hug a Bear”, “Pizza Cutter”, and “Spiders and Flies”.
“Spiders and Flies” was basically like “Sharks and Minnows”, except before the game started, each group of insect said a chant:
“We are the spiders!”
“We are the flies!”


“We’re gonna eat you!”
“You just try!”
In all honesty, that’s the only game I remember how it works. I have a vague recollection of how “Pizza Cutter” works, but I couldn’t be able to tell you.
After the games, we went back to the main building and gathered at our tables. In table #10, there was Kate, one Alyssa’s triplets (the other was Jack), Tyler, and Tyler’s mom. Lunch was chicken strips and French fries.
Still with Chad as our group leader, we went on a walk to the rock climbing tower. We challenged ourselves one by one, and I only managed to get about a quarter of the way up. I guess that’s not a surprise, since I’m afraid of heights.
Now it’s zip-lining time. At first, I didn’t want to do it. Then, after all my friends in my group went, they insisted that I should go too, so I did.
First I had to gear up. One harness, one helmet, check. Then I had to climb the never-ending staircase, and of course the genius who created that thing had to make it grated so you could see right underneath your toes to the ground five floors down.
Once I reached the top of the building (which was also the inside of the rock climbing tower) Chad hooked a clip to my harness, the other end of the rope attached to the zip-lining cord, made sure it was secure, and said, “On the count of three, jump out.” I nodded numbly. I was scared to death.
There’s this building. It’s about eight floors high and on the top floor there’s a big gaping hole – the wall’s totally missing and you’re told to jump out of it. Wouldn’t you be freaked out?
“One… two…three!” Chad counted down.
I didn’t actually jump; I did something more like leaning. First my head, then stomach, and finally my toes were far beyond the wooden ledge. All of a sudden my feet were in thin air and I was clasping onto the rope that was holding my harness to the cord above my head. My heart was beating more than I knew it could. After a while I realized I wouldn’t die if I let go, so I eased up my grip, and that’s when I started to enjoy it.
I was actually sad it was over. I, the girl who couldn’t jump off the third step, went zip-lining! I was ecstatic. If another zip-lining opportunity came by, I would clutch it like a wolf clutching its prey.
Our next activity was archery. That was fun. For some reason, I’ve always been fascinated by the sport, so this was particularly interesting.
The staff taught us how to do it, and then let us have at it. There were three targets, each made out of hay. On top of one target, there was this little Styrofoam beaver my group members named Justin Beaver. Of course, being named after one of the most annoying celebrities, we were all trying to murder him.
During my turn, I was aiming for Justin Beaver’s ear and accidently got a perfect, bull’s eye, right in the middle of the circle. I was overjoyed. I didn’t tell anyone it was a mistake, though.
After dinner, which was spaghetti, we headed out for the campfire. It was still light out, so it wasn’t top-of-the-notch. We still had all our campfire songs, but I don’t really like marshmallows and I was tired, so it wasn’t the highlight of the experience.
Despite all those negative comments I threw in there, it did have its bright sides. We learned about the Trids, who were little people who cleaned up the camp. If you were missing any socks, you know the Trids took them, because they needed something warm to sleep in and socks worked so perfectly.
Chad told us, “This is usually the hour when Trids come out, so I want you all to yell on the count of three, ‘Hi Trids!’ and we’ll see if they respond. Everyone ready? One, two, three.”
“Hi Trids!” we all shouted, and our echo came bouncing back to us from across the lake, “Hi kids!” Unfortunately, that was one of the only upsides about that whole campfire business.

Disappointed, Sarah, Sammy, a quite girl who was still recovering from a sprained ankle, and I got an excuse to get back to the cabin. Sammy’s ankle was hurting, and she just had to have ice, so we got to miss out on the boring campfire.
In bed, my cabin mates, Kate, Alyssa, Avery, Claire, Sarah, Sammy, Molly, and another Claire and I were eagerly awaiting what tomorrow would bring. But that’s another day, another chapter, for another time.