I'm back!

Sunrise in Maine

Hello everyone!

Whew, it's been a while since I updated. Well, not that long, but it feels like it, especially here on the internet, where everything moves so fast. And, I think, because so many things have happened to me in the past few weeks.

As I mentioned earlier, I was on vacation in Maine. Specifically, I was volunteering at a camp that I've worked at and attended for many years. I met so many nice people and did a lot of work. We were very, very busy, getting the camp ready for the summer sessions and welcoming the campers.

Some of the things I did: I painted a bathroom yellow (see photo below) which is harder than it sounds! The hardest part was making sure the paint didn't go all over the place, like on to the new shower. I also helped move food onto the island and some new mattresses for the beds. That's the tricky thing about an island: Everything has to be brought over, and it usually involves many boat trips, and walking up and down the docks. The last week I was there volunteering, the camp was in session, so I helped out in the kitchen, making breakfast, lunch and dinner for thirty people. But even when the work is hard, somehow I still had a lot of fun. I think it's the people. Everyone who volunteers there is so nice, and when you spend all day working with someone, you tend to become friends very quickly. In fact, I think sometimes working with someone on a difficult job, like washing dishes, strangely makes you better friends. Maybe it's because you have to cheer each other on to get through it, and then when you're done, you have this great sense of accomplishment that you guys - and only you - share.

Bathroom I painted

In fact, I was thinking about that a lot while I was there, and since I've been back - how experiences that are so unique and singular really bind you to the people you experienced them with. I remember we talked about this once in my 12th grade English class, while reading the book Under the Net by Iris Murdoch (which, confession: I didn't actually read). In the book, three of the characters go swimming together on a beautiful night, and the narrator observes that, after that, they're much better friends, because they want to talk to someone about this amazing experience, and they're the only ones who truly understand what it was like and what it meant, because they were all there. You can describe it to an outsider, and show them pictures even, but they might never fully understand why it's so important. It's kind of a paradox, because these important moments are the ones you most want to talk about with someone, but you can never really describe them. So, in the end, the only people you have to talk about with are the people that were there. Do any of you feel that way about a certain place or event? Well, that's how I feel about this place in Maine, and I think it's part of the reason why I've stayed such good friend with the people I've met there, some of them for more than ten years.

Well, that, and the fact that so many of the people that go there are truly amazing. For example, my friend, Barb, whom I met years ago while volunteering, picked me up to take me to the airport. On the car ride, Barb told me all about the thing she had done in the past year: taking a trip to Cuba, acting as a parent to a college student who had come to Maine from Wisconsin, befriending the hockey team of her local college. I was amazed to hear about  how full and busy her life was. I hope I have that much going on when I'm older.

And now I'm going to share some pictures, even though I just ranted about how other people might never really understand the how special a place is. I think you'll get a pretty good idea from the pictures. If you would like to find out more about the camp and its programs, you can do so here. 

A boat ride

Terns