How was Kamp?

Kamp Kennessee: A Christian camp organized by Florida College. 

Hello gorgeous! (Oh how I have missed typing that.) I know you all are probably wondering how kamp went. I bet you were all constantly worrying about my well being asking yourself the following: Is she ok? Is she having fun? Meeting people? Guys? Making friends? Learning something? Well the answer is yes! I had the best time ever!! Ok now for the details: (Beware this post is going to be lengthy at best but I'll try to cut it down some)  Kamp was amazing in the end, but it didn't start out that way.

Sunday: (Arriving)

We arrived at kamp and checked in at about 2:30 Sunday afternoon (after crying the whole hour drive there) kinda nervous but kinda excited, you know how that goes. Then I saw my bestie Kenzie and instantly felt so much better and we found out that we were going to be in the same cabin. HUGE RELIEF let me tell you. So we go find a bunk (she got top I got bottom) and we just chill with our parents and some church friends until 3 when the kampers and parents have a short singing followed by a short devotional. After which, the parents depart (I find the word depart hilarious..idk why..sorry I'm literally sleep deprived at the moment) and we have dinner which was not edible at all omg it was disgusting I literally could not eat it. OH and tug-a-war.  Ok now for the fun stuff!!! We had this crazy introduction to the counselors and then had a concert by the FC friends which was amazing they are so crazy talented and everyone was jumping and singing and woah just woah.  They played What Makes You Beautiful which just made my day. I may have screamed louder than I should have.. Here's where things start going downhill..me and Kenz are standing in line at the snack bar to get some food (that's actually edible) and a drink when all of a sudden my mouth starts watering like it does when I'm about to throw up. I try to stick it through and get some water but end up going to the nurse and getting some meds and I end up missing the rest of the concert to go back to the cabin to shower and sleep. And Kenz came with me cause she's just that good of a friend.

Monday: (The longest day)

I wake up not feeling well. Extremely bad actually. My stomach is hurting and I'm already homesick. It's bad. Just bad. I go to breakfast  but only eat a pinch of my biscuit, which is, you guessed it, not edible.  And we HAD chapel and society time (I was on Psi Beta GO BETA). Well by this time I had decided that I should go back to the nurse and get some meds. And about 11 I wanted to go home. I had decided that I was going to die because the food was not edible and that I would never sleep again. Well the nurse wouldn't even let me call. It pushed my buttons. So I started crying. Hard. Well the guy who runs the kamp came in to get me and said that I needed to go to the bible class (all girls so that I wouldn't need to worry about the boys seeing me cry) and then I could talk to Mrs. Mary a woman that I go to church with and talk to her to see if I felt any better. If going into the study 20 minutes late wasn't enough to cause some curious eyes, having a blood red face, red eyes, and a constantly running nose definitely was. But after the study a few of the girls came and introduced themselves and asked me if I was alright and if there was anything they could do to help. It was so so sweet. It really was. But I made my way back to the nurse's office and met Mrs. Mary who saw how shaken I was and how much I wanted to go home. She let me call mom and I instantly felt so much better to know that she was going to come pick me up later that might. I went on with my day and really started to enjoy it and make some friends. Mom showed up about 4 that afternoon and the huge group from my church in Millersville and even random people I didn't know were trying to talk me into staying. It wasn't working.My mind was set on leaving. I had come to the conclusion that the only reason I started to enjoy myself was because I had a peace at mind knowing that mom was going to be here in a few hours. My ever so clever mother than decided to bribe me with Alt-J concert tickets to stay at least one more night. I turned them down! That's how set on leaving I actually was! Well we went to my cabin to get my stuff and left the kamp. Halfway home I was like "mom..how far away are we from Kamp?" And she said "about 30 minutes. Why do you want to go back?" After I said maybe we stopped to get some Chick-Fil-A to let me eat and ponder my options. I finally realized that I was definitely missing out on not only an amazing opportunity to strengthen my spirituality but also to gain more relationships (friendships and wink wink boys). And I also was not going to be known as the girl who left Kamp without being there a full day. So we turned around and I made my, what I like to call, movie star entrance. Everyone was in dinner so I went back to my cabin and put my stuff down, said bye to mom, and continued on with my plan. I opened the door at my preferred entrance to the dining hall, saw a kid from our Millersville group who totally spazzed when he saw me it was so sweet. He was like "Katie?! I thought you left! Jacob's going to be so happy! He was so upset! Oh and Kenz ohhh she's going to be SO HAPPY!" And I was like "I'm back!" I proceeded to enter the room even further and could not find the Millersville group anywhere. All of a sudden I hear "Katie?" I turn around and a few of the group has finally caught onto the commotion. Everyone was super excited and hugging me and it was so sweet! Kenzie and Jacob (who is my cousin) were spazzing with joy. It was, lame to say but, inspiring. The little kids that came along from our group were super excited as well. It was amazing. I had a great time after that.  **Extra!! I forgot to mention that at lunch before I was about to leave, I hadn't let anyone but Kenz know that I was actually about to leave. I was looking for Jacob but didn't see him anywhere. But before lunch ended the whole Millersville group crowded around me, being super loud I must add, saying that I could by no means leave. And that I haven't even given Kamp a chance. I didn't even know most of them wanted me to stay! It was so sweet! Ok that is all*

Tuesday: 

I don't remember much about Tuesda---Oh wait. Yes I do. Tuesday is the hayride. The hayride is a highly anticipated event in which all girls hope that their Kamp crush will ask them to be his date for this ever so special event. Yes high hopes, Most come out without a date. I would be one of them. But hey I was having fun chilling with my friends anyway. But Jacob decided to play matchmaker and tell (I'll call him T) that he should totally ask me to the hayride, not knowing that I know this guy because he used to attend my church. T said that he knew me and that he didn't want it to be awkward if I turned him down. Which was a really sweet answer in my opinion. Well my cousin must be the perfect matchmaker because I do like T and I kinda spazzed when he said that he told me he told him to ask me. Yikes.  But that was all I really remember from Tuesday other than the fact that I started making a few constant friends. Including the two amazing girls Gabby and Nicole!

Wednesday: (The night of the storm)

Again I don't remember much..HOW DO I NOT REMEMBER IT'S KILLING ME. Oh well..OH we had our Kamp decathlon with our teams. Psi Beta was my team/society and I love ALL of the people on it they are all so amazing! Not to mention we literally had the cutest guys in the Kamp other than one who was on Omega, T. We did pretty good. Me, a girl named Selena, and a guy I'll call D had to do one thing it was so hard omg. It was some odd contraption with a wooden board which me and Selena had to sit on the ends of (me passing her the rollers so she could put them in front of the board and D pulling us along. Yes all 3 of us soon to be sophomores. Pulled by one guy. One very attractive guy. But it was alot of fun.  By this time the food was still not edible. One day for breakfast I didn't even get food, for lunch I had like two small spoon fulls of corn and half of a breadstick, and for dinner I ate the trail mix I had in the cabin. Which is super weird for me considering eating is the thing I do best in my life. OK now for the good stuff.  There was a storm this night. It had started to show some heat lightening and I know that's not anything to worry about so I was like oh cool very pretty yeah ok whatever. Well we get back to the cabin and me and Kenz are like omg both of the showers are OPEN. This is something you take advantage of when you share a cabin with 20 other girls and there are only 2 showers. As we're about to hop in, a girl runs in screaming lightening struck a tree and that it has fallen. I look over and Kenzie is already panicking. She has this look in her eyes and I know that she's about to break down and start bawling. She's terrified of storms. Terrified. I tell her to hop into the shower and that I'm right next to her in the other shower and that when she gets out we can just go on to sleep so she doesn't have to think about it. We go our separate ways into the showers and all of a sudden it gets louder in the cabin. I think I hear the word panic but proceed to do my showerly things when I hear the counselor's voice followed by Kenzie saying frantically that I need to get  out and we need to go to the nurses station because of some bad weather coming through.  I hop out in enough time to see Kenz run around the corner in nothing but her towel and running back in because the counselor told her to find her clothes. I had literally just put conditioner in my hair and the water hadn't even began to rinse it out by this time.  I manage to jump out half covered by the shower curtain half not until I find my own towel. We run to the stalls and throw on our clothes and start hustling and bustling down the hill. Quite a funny sight to see. 2 girls running down a hill in a brewing storm with shampoo and conditioner all over our hair. When we get to the station there are some other girls from our cabin including a girl named Kelsey who is so super cool and sweet! A couple rooms down were the rest of the girls from Kamp all singing songs to pass the time. It was honestly the coolest thing to hear. A room full of powerful voices singing to praise God's name. It was so cool. But there wasn't room for the girls in the other room to squeeze in there so we just sat  out on the porch singing along with them. It was epic. And about 2 am they lat us go back to the cabin. Nothing was hurt. The storm did nothing. So I ran to the shower and jumped in bed. That was my interesting story.

Thursday: (The second to last day)

I kept seeing Kelsey everywhere. And I mean everywhere. Bathroom, lunch, walking, everywhere. She was super sweet and exactly like this Kelsey!!! She just didn't look like her. So she was another of the friends I got pretty close with! :) By this time everyone was ready to leave I'm pretty sure. We were all super exhausted but at least they gave us somewhat better food.  There was also a talent show. Man we have some talent at that kamp let me tell ya. Phew. I'll have to look for a link to a video of a little kid from my church singing and playing the piano to Secrets by One Republic.

Friday: (Last day)

Ok this was a day I had torn feelings toward. I was so ready to be home and get some food, see my cat, family, and phone again. But I really didn't want to leave everyone. Even the people I didn't make connections with I didn't want to leave. It was actually extremely sad knowing that it was the last time that the seniors would be allowed to come back. And knowing that that was the last day that Psi Beta would be a team together. Oh man it's making me sad thinking about it. :( I love everyone that I interacted with. They were all super sweet. And I'm definitely going back next year. At the end of the day the ranks for all of the teams were announced. We came in 2nd place, only beat by 1.6 points. We were so shocked! It was awesome! And after everything was done everyone was crying and hugging and crying some more. Oh my word, I'm about to cry thinking about it. Nicole and Gabby don't even live near me, but way up in another state. But I will visit them. I don't know how, but I will. And omg I was walking with Kenz to the car and D and a guy I'll call C were walking in the same direction and I was like "Bye guys!" and D did this little hand motion like give me a hug and I was like omg what finally (in my head of course) but he said "you were on my team you definitely deserve a hug!" and I was like "Bring it in bring it in!" it was the best hug I've had in my entire life. Sorry T. This one wasn't an awkward one. But D goes to Nicole's church so when I go visit her, I can see him too! Saying bye to Nicole was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. It was excruciating.

Meanwhile I'm at home, completely exhausted and missing everyone and recapturing all of the memories I made and I'm so happy and sad for next year! Aw man. I  miss everyone so much. I'm sitting here friending everyone on Facebook and chatting and texting and just doing what I can to keep in touch. It's going to be hard not to see them every day like I have in the past week, but it will just keep me excited for next year. 

Thanks beautiful,

Katie xx

Sparta! Oh man I'm going to miss hearing that every five minutes.