Summer Camps
Two of them, to be exact. Perhaps you’ll find it interesting to know that these were actually my first ever sleep-away camp experiences. Actually, I think they were my first regular camps as well. My first camp experience was GSP back in my home state for 5 weeks, whereas my second camp experience, NSLC, was in San Francisco/Berkeley for 11 days. Both camps had their positives and their negatives and were two entirely different experiences.
So since I post daily, I have reflections for each day I spent at the two respective summer camps. Thus, finding out how I felt and what my reactions were shouldn’t be difficult. I will attach the links to read about the days I spent at camp, but I would also just like to briefly summarize, in a paragraph or so, my experience with each campus.
The first camp was the one based in my home state, GSP. Since it was for such a long amount of time, I was incredibly worried about it going in. Several of my friends had gone through this experience and had told me that I was in for the best experience of my life! Sadly, that was not true. While I did have an awesome time and I met some amazing people, it was not what I had expected. The classes disappointed me, and the entire program wasn’t what I expected. Perhaps I was too homesick, but I found myself shying away from social events and thus I only made a few very close friends. They say your experience is what you make it, thus the blame is on me. However, I was probably the only one excite to leave. After 5 weeks, everyone around me was crying on closing day; I was the only one giddy to be leaving. While I’m glad that I participated, and I learned several things from the experience, it juts did not live up to my expectations. NSLC was the second program I attended and GSP couldn’t compare to it at all. Right from the very beginning, I knew I was in for a much different experience. Where at GSP the negatives outweighed the positives, it was the opposite for NSLC. I felt as if the people were nicer and more diverse, there were no cliques/groups, the activities were more entertaining, we actually studied in our classes, the food was better (HUGE plus!), as was the location. I suppose the biggest difference between the two was that while GSP was free, we had to pay for NSLC and that is probably why the advantages to the second program were much more. However, that shouldn’t be of relevance, because I as a person was the same at both programs, and I acted the same. So going back to “The experience is what you make of it”, this experience was so much better! If that isn’t convincing enough, perhaps this will be. Spending 5 weeks with everyone, I shed not a single tear at the programs closing; spending 11 days with my NSLC group, I was bawling days before we had to leave. And considering I rarely cry, that should be an indication of how I felt about each program. Nonetheless, I am grateful for having had the opportunity to experience both! They have changed me as a person for the better and I am glad for that. If anyone has the opportunity to attend either, I sincerely recommend either one!
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