Jayna and I wouldn’t be going to Youth Camp with our sisters Julie and Jessie because we were bumped up into a new age group this year, so they would be going to camp a week later. Although my sister and I rarely got along it was always convenient in situations like this to have a sister so close in age. We seemed to get along great when we were somewhere we didn’t know anyone else…we always had each other and weren’t pressured to make new friends if we didn’t want to. It would be okay, though, because I’d be spending all of my time with Jayna anyway, right? Well. When you filled out your application you were able to put down the name of two other campers that you wanted to room with. The only person that I knew was Jayna so I wrote her name down. I don’t know whether or not Jayna wrote down my name, but she also wrote down the name of one of her camp friends…and all of her camp friends wrote down her name. So there was no room for me in that room and I was placed in a room down the hall where I knew absolutely nobody. I pretty much didn’t see Jayna for the rest of camp.

When my mom dropped me off at camp I begged her not to leave me there. I didn’t want to go to begin with. But she said that I’d made a commitment and it was already paid for and maybe I’d have fun. So I had to stay. I heard later that my grandma couldn’t believe that my mom left me there alone in “that place”. Haha. The dorm rooms were incredibly crowded with no air conditioning. They told you to be sure to wear flip flops in the shower so that you didn’t get a fungus on your feet. Um, no thank you. I didn’t shower all week (yeah, gross, I know…but the showers weren’t much cleaner). The food was terrible and I pretty much never complained about my mom’s food again (Not that there was anything to complain about. My mom is an amazing cook, but I was a picky eater that wouldn’t eat anything but chicken fingers for the first 13 years of life.). I refused to eat the food. I survived on Twix, Dr. Pepper, and Slime Slurps that I’d get at the “Canteen” every night. (Yes, I did save the wrapper from one of my Slime Slurps as a Youth Camp souvenir. You can thank me later.)

I hated Youth Camp. It was everything that I thought it would be dirty, hot, outside, sports, blah, blah, blah. I don’t remember seeing any cute boys or there being any activities that I’d enjoy (like drama, dance, music, or art). I did make one friend who was in my room named, Tonia. I don’t remember too much about her except she was really skinny and had very light blonde hair and one night we stayed up on her bunk singing “I’m Proud to be an American”. I never saw or heard from her again after camp although I think I wrote her a few letters that I never mailed.

My favorite part of camp was “Chapel”. These were basically the church services. There was one in the afternoon that was more like a Bible study and one in the evening that you were to dress up for (yay, church clothes and no shower!) and there was a full service with worship music, sermon, and alter calls. I always really enjoyed the lessons and the singing, and worship and all of it. Unfortunately in the afternoon I had a hard time staying awake. I even started to skip swimming thinking that the water was making me sleepy for Chapel, but it didn’t help too much. Still I really enjoyed the services and it was the only thing about camp that I liked. But I don’t think you needed to drop me in the woods with no shower and no food for me to experience that.

I never went to Youth Camp again and to this day I speak of the perils and horrors that were Youth Camp 1991. So I present to you my “Youth Camp Stinks” folder created by my 12 year old tortured soul so scarred for life by this experience. I’ve typed out the text below in case you can’t read my hand writing (You’ll need to click on the image and enlarge it for full enjoyment). I wrote with much sarcasm (if you couldn’t tell) and I’m honestly not sure what half of this stuff means, anyway.
Clearly I’ve blocked a lot out.

I went to Youth Camp last year in Summerset.
Camp lasted from Mon. to Fri.
We slept in small, crowded rooms, dorms, and the food was horrible!
My counselor was Lou Ann
I learned to ______________
I really liked camp because of all the people I met!
The worst part about camp was the food. No the rooms. Oh, who knows.
New friends I met at camp: Tonia Z., Carrie, Nicky