Kick up your heels . . .

Here I am! I’m sitting at home recovering from a week at camp. This morning as I unpacked my suitcase I found a cookie I’d saved from this past week. For the first time in the history of the City on the Hill Youth Leadership camp, an alumni student actually brought campaign materials with him!! In addition to posters and lapel pins, he handed out cookies with his face on them that said: “Things are always sweeter when you vote for ‘Bob’.” It was a very creative gesture but, in reality, it worked against him because the new students, who were quite overwhelmed at first, felt he had come on too strongly. He ended up only getting a handful of votes, poor guy. I suppose he’ll have to chalk it up as a hard-earned lesson.

The cookie was a bit stale, being a week old, but I ate it anyway.

My favorite part of the week was small group time. I led devotions and other various discussions with six girls. They were all sixteen except for one fifteen year old. I was a bit apprehensive going into it because I was afraid that, at the ripened age of twenty-five, the girls would think me very un-cool. (It was a very sobering thought when I realized they were just beginning to lose their front teeth at approximately the same time I got my driver’s license.) In the end, however, it all turned out pretty well. We had some great discussions and I was really able to bond with these young ladies. I only had one incidence where a young gal burst into tears on me. I hate it when that happens because I’m not that emotional of a person. It’s not that I don’t care – it’s just hard to relate sometimes. But I think I was able to comfort her anyway. God is good. Hallelujah.

The cafeteria food got old VERY quickly. I had a conversation with one young man during dinner where he emphatically expressed that he will always and forevermore, from that date forward, appreciate his mom making good meals for him every night. The food was very greasy and everything tasted the same. One evening I was overjoyed to find out that they were going to serve fettucine alfredo. Well, the dish ended up being as tasteless as everything else. How can anyone mess up alfredo? I just don’t get it.

The talent show on Friday was absolutely hilarious. There were some people who were very talented. Others, let’s just say, weren’t. But those who weren’t talented were the BEST because they didn’t realize it but performed anyway – without any inhibition. (Like that William Hung dude.) Oh yeah, I shan’t forget to mention that I was slightly embarrassed during one of the performances. I had approved several girls to do a hula dance. Well, when I saw them practice it was all good and fine. But the night of the talent show they were slightly more “into it.” Let’s just say they had added a lot more hip-action to the dance. Karen couldn’t believe that someone so pure and sweet as AMY KOONS had approved the dance. I felt badly but what could I do? Yikes.

Although the ice breaker games on the lawn, the basketball, etc., etc. were all very fun . . . one of the MOST exciting moments was Saturday, on the floor of the Assembly and Senate. It was fun to hear the arguments on the bills and see the kids try to whip up the necessary votes. Halfway through the session, as I sat back in my chair, I decided that I wasn’t being entertained enough. So . . . I went to one of the kids and suggested that they try to vacate the speaker’s chair. “But she’s doing such a good job,” was the reply. “Well,” I said, “Even if she’s doing a good job, wouldn’t it be fun to have a new face up there?” Ideas have consequences, as we all know. And before long there was a motion to vacate the chair. It took several motions but, eventually, the chair lost her job and a new chair was appointed. It’s such fun to be a mover-and-shaker. (Honestly, I didn’t think anything would become of my “idea” and was shocked, simply shocked, to find out that my opinion carried weight after all.) ;)

The week concluded with a candle-lighting ceremony and a banquet. (Where it never fails that half the girls wear poofy prom-like dresses. Very cute.) Many girls were crying to have to leave their friends. The estrogen was flowing freely. For sure.

I remember what it was like being sixteen and thinking that “nothing this fun will ever happen to me again.” Honestly, it’s tough being young with so much in your life being “unknown.” I tried to console one student by telling her, “You have NO IDEA what good times lie just around the corner. The best years are yet to come.”