Like Benji, I definitely see Summers as a time of growing and change. You get away from the routines and schedules that lock you into one persona during the year and have a chance to explore. You're also separated from those you see everyday in school and are able to make new connections and pass off any major changes you make as a Summer induced process, rather than a conscious change. My summers are full of traditions that help me break up the monotony of school and explore my identity in other contexts.
Summer always starts with a family trip to Kiawah Island off the coast of South Carolina. We've gone for many years and thus witnessed a period of extensive growth and development on the island as more and more tourists find out about the previously hidden gem. Every year I see the same families that go out during the same week every summer. I still do some of the same activities as I did when I was seven but mostly I've made the transition from having a lot of scheduled activities when I was young to having tons of free time now. Joey has also been an addition to my family's Kiawah party.
I also attend Illinois Summer Youth Music camp for their musical theater and choral programs. Here I explore my more outgoing side, struggling to keep up with the raucous theater kids. The social hierarchy at a theater camp is extremely different, as is the vernacular, and social customs. Every year I try to adequately prepare myself and every year I experience a sort of culture shock, induced by the yelling, extreme cussing, mean humor, and touching. The kids are far more confident and outgoing than anyone I had met previously and the environment at ISYM helped me discover a very different part of myself than who I am at school (although the two become more incorporated every year).
Another summer tradition is Camp Tecumseh. It's sort of like 4-H camp, but way better. I can't even explain what it's like to there. It feels like another world. Again, I must suffer through the initial culture shock of camp as my peers excitedly volunteer to get the food for our table and saying prayers before meals. For a week or two, I am truly third and I work to develop my spiritual side in a way that is nearly impossible at home.
Both these camps give me the opportunity to be different that I am at school and they were definitely integral in establishing the self-confidence I now possess. They have taught me to work with people from different backgrounds. The first time someone asked me to define a word I used at Camp T, I thought they were making fun of me and I had used the word wrong. Actually, they just wanted to know. They said that they didn't know all the words I had been using so they finally decided to ask. They next time someone asked me, I was just ready with the answer.
Camp friends are also super important. There are different tiers of camp friends. The lowest is people you sit with at lunch once because you had nowhere else to go. You feel comfortable enough to invite yourself to sit with them but you only have superficial, fake-smiling conversation over the meal. The next level is your besties at camp but you have nothing besides camp to talk about and therefore your friendship dies at closing ceremonies. You may attempt contact later but it is futile. The line between the top two levels is very slight: there are the camp friends you maintain contact with after camp and stay close and the camp friends were you drop your camp persona when you're with them. I have all of the above. I would say that they are all important, especially at Uni, where we need to branch out and meet other people.
During the summer, I also have assorted trips to spas or see relatives and of course I hang out with school friends. I get to ride my horse a lot, which is fun and I practice my instruments more than I can in the school year. I always make a lot of memories in the summer and I am SO PUMPED to start this summer a few days from now. :D
Like you, summer is also a radical change in schedule for me. I normally go on vacation to the same place in the Caribbean, but as I wrote about in one of my blog posts my Sag Harbor is more tied to winter break. Summer though is baseball season, and because Uni doesn't have a team, all the people I play with and see on a day to day basis are completely different than the group of friends I have at school. We all started off in peanut league when we were five, and since then have played together (or against each other). Every year there's a couple kids that quit, a couple new kids who just moved to town, but the general group stays the same. With my baseball guys, I can't talk the same way I do at school, every metaphor and allusion has to be related to sports in some way, and more "school" like things like reading books are off limits for discussion. There are only a few guys who I talk to and hang out with year around, the rest are summer friends like Benji and you have, who, though we live in the same town never decide to meet up and hang out. At the start of every season we always have to pay attention to make sure no one improved too much to upset the balance of the good pitchers, hitters, etc. For a few weeks we keep our distance in practice beyond a few head nods and chatter shagging balls in the outfield, but luckily for us, there's always a kid with brand new expensive equipment that we can re-bond once again over our mutual distaste at his lack of an undefined "respect for the game."
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