As a child, I came to camp a shy, self-conscious girl who went to a school full of cliques and mean girls...I always felt like I had to measure up...and yet, I never did. I was shy, I didn't have the brand-name clothes, my parents didn't drive a cute car and worst of all, despite all my protests, day after day, I came to school with a lunch packed with wheat bread sandwiches and Granny Goose chips - and to be clear, these were not the pre-packaged chips - my chips were stuffed in a plastic bag. Just not cool.
Yet, camp was different. I left camp realizing that there was more in the world than the walls of my school or the boundaries of my small farm town. Even more, I made friends with people who liked me for me - the wheat bread, the shyness…it didn't matter. And of course, this acceptance instantly made me feel less shy and less self-conscious. I went home with new eyes.
I came back to camp for a number of years in middle school - and these experiences built the resilience that I needed for high school. High school had a whole new dynamic - there was a huge division of race at our school, major religious intolerance and to top it off - those good 'ol typical high school problems: alcohol, drugs & pregnancy.
This heap of problems at my school (and, ultimately, in my town) created an incredible amount of anxiety in me - I couldn't stand bigotry - and it was in my face all the time in high school. To ignore it was to accept it.
I had to step up or step out...be the first to say "this isn't ok", or step into the shadows and let my small, close-minded town be what it was going to be. I decided, at whatever cost, to be myself - and the person I was couldn't stand by and accept intolerance: so I stepped up. My sophomore year in high school was full of verbal fights, accusations and goading. It was a year of standing alone - but, I was on my own two feet and that felt better to me than the alternative.
I can't take credit for changing my home town, because it didn't completely change and probably still hasn't changed entirely. But, I changed, and because of this, I could live in the world as my true self, even in a small close-minded town - I could stand up for what I felt was right, be friends with whomever I wanted and believe what I wanted to believe - and I was even accepted for it by that small close-minded town, which is a miracle in and of itself.
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~Lupine Reppert
Director of Education & Membership
American Camp Association, Southern CA/HI
(f) Camper, Camp Christelation
(f) Counselor, Building Bridges for Peace
(f) Counselor & Director, Tumbleweed Day Camp
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