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2004-07-27 06:08:33 ET On the subject of Sex: Growing up in church you are continually fed the notion that sex is bad. Don’t think about it, don’t talk about it, and never ever mention the word around your parents. My sister’s shower last week was strange. My sister my mother and I, talked as my sister went through the lingerie she had gotten as presents. Hearing my mother say things like “Don’t worry if it’s too tight, it won’t be on long” was kinda Twilight Zoneish. On the subject of Camp: For five and a half days I was Recreation Staff for a teen camp in Pine Valley. I never got any more than four hours of sleep at night. The program this year, due to some last minute changes in administration, was incredibly unorganized. This situation left us trying to pull all the pieces together at the last minute every second of the day. Yet despite the frustration and sleep deprivation, the week was amazing. They were 325 of your typical church kids that ran around. The squealing high maintenance girls that screamed every time we got them with the water balloons, The Jr. High Boys who showed abandon of all reason as four tackled me to rub oatmeal in my hair. The one girl who had cancer and unashamed, bore her bare head with a smile. The pain this girl was in was tremendous. Yet she involved herself in every game and I never saw her cry or feel sorry for herself. I am grateful for the chance I was given to meet these kids. One of the girls cried when I told her goodbye. She thanked me for talking to her. All I did was spend about twenty minutes of free time sitting at a table talking to her about useless things. What made a world of difference to them is that someone said hello to them. Thst is very humbling to think about. It makes me want to make the effort to involve myself more in people’s lives. To loose my self centeredness and show someone that there is other’s willing to listen. There are always the few that you want to keep. There is that ugly situation at home and you don’t want to send them back. I have a list of names, attached to faces and silly memories. They want me to come back next year. They wanted me to do rec staff for a camp in a couple of weeks. If I could do this as full time work I would. |
