It’s a one-hour drive from my house to Camp Ramah in Palmer, Massachusetts. In the summer of 2017, my parents were driving nine-year-old me there for my first ever summer at sleepaway camp. All that morning it felt like there were hundreds of little butterflies flying around in my stomach, and in the car, the butterflies were so bad that I felt like I couldn’t open my mouth unless I wanted to throw up. My mom had told me about her experience at this camp, and although she didn’t have the best time, she felt confident that I would have a blast. Her confidence gave me hope that I would have a great time, so I was also very excited about the adventure. Despite feeling sort of nauseous, I couldn’t sit still in the car.

Although I was only there for twelve days, I had to be doing something all the time in order to stay distracted, or else I would be thinking of home and start crying, so I was totally ready to go home when the time came. I did not want to go back the next summer. However, my parents signed me up without my knowledge, so I went again only because I wanted to see my friends. It ended up being one of the best summers of my life, and the first of many steps out of my comfort zone.

At my camp, we have something called ‘the swing’ which is basically a stationary zipline, but instead of moving in one direction, you swing back and forth. I’m not a fan of heights, so when it was my turn to go on the swing, I was nervous and fearful. I remember shaking as I climbed the ladder, got hooked into all the ropes, and was lifted off the ground. As you are slowly pulled up into the air, you can tell the people pulling the rope to stop when you are at a specific height and that is the height you start swinging from. I only went about halfway up. After a countdown from three, I let go of the rope that was holding me in place, and I started swinging. It was the most terrifying, thrilling, and exhilarating experience I had ever had. So the next summer, I was super excited to do it again. That time, however, as I was being tied in, I told the person tying me in, to pull me all the way up no matter what I said. I just accepted that I would go to the top. So I went all the way up, and although I may have screamed a little bit, it was even better than the first time. It was so fun that I went twice more in my four weeks at camp. Always going to the top.

Throughout my summer camp experience, I learned many valuable lessons, but one of my biggest takeaways was about stepping out of my comfort zone, such as the swing, and even just going to camp in the first place. If I had never gone back to camp because I didn’t want to, I would have never had the opportunity to experience some of the best moments of my life and make some of my best friends. So, even though I will probably get paid another visit by the butterflies at the beginning of the summer, I know that great things will come from them, and I have never been happier to say that I am very, very excited to go back this summer.

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