This morning I was woken up by wake up call, the song choice was pretty fitting as today is prom. I stayed in bed for a bit, trying to convince my brain and body to get up and moving for the day. I had stayed up later than I had wanted to the night before, the Goblin Rave was a lot of fun and afterwards I played Dutch Blitz with Denny, Ethan, Emilio, and Everest. It didn’t take long for me to start my day. I got ready in the bathroom with several other campers, chatting here and there, that’s been part of both my morning and nighttime routine this session.
Before getting breakfast, I went to tent city to check if my partner, Ethan, was awake, he was and I offered to get him breakfast. I got him and myself breakfast, my usual of potatoes, tofu, and oatmeal with brown sugar. I ate on the front porch with a lot of campers, people trickled in and out periodically. The check in bell rang so I bused my dish and went to the chapel. Lots of “huzzahs” were had during morning meeting, with it over and done with I gave a few people hugs before I left. The hug number was eleven, I didn’t hug that many people, but I enjoyed the few I did give.
I headed to the lodge and was heckled by my friend Roxy (“Row-shee”) to attend their and Emma’s workshop “Timers”, it’s a game where you set timers and guess how long it’s been. I wasn’t very sold on the idea. I left the lodge and went to my cabin, I had meant to make tea before morning meeting but I didn’t have enough time nor the tea I wanted, instead of tea, I decided to have a capri sun and I took it to advisee. I’m in Margie’s advisee, we meet on a hill on the far side of camp by the road, it’s a lovely little spot… minus the occasional car but that can’t really be helped. We all checked in and continued playing the game we had started the day prior, two truths and a lie. Eventually advisee was over and everyone dispersed back out into camp.
My friends and fellow advisee members, Emery and Rue, both asked me for a capri sun so we walked to Laurel, my cabin, so I could supply them. I ended up doing laps of my cabin as I asked a few more people if they wanted one, it was pretty funny. I remembered to grab a teabag before I left my cabin and headed back to the lodge. I was immediately heckled to play Timers once again by Roxy, this time joined by Emma. I agreed, much to my chagrin, at the very least I had my tea. The good news is I ended up having a lot more fun than I thought I would have, the bad news is that I’m worse at knowing how much time has passed that I would like to be.
The workshop started off strong by Roxy and Emma asking for everyone’s time keeping devices, watches and phones and such. There were two “modes” to the game, at the start of the workshop, they had started an hour long timer that was counting down which was periodically paused and then you would guess what it was at. The other mode was starting a stopwatch and stopping it at a random time, then you guess how long it was going for, this mode was usually accompanied by Roxy and Emma trying to distract us with conversation. I guessed the time on the dot once and was usually pretty close outside of my shining moment.
The bell rang and it was superhero time, I don’t have a superhero during that time so I hung out on the stage for the thirty minutes. I talked with Denny, Emery, Ethan, Killian, Lily, Nova, and a few others who came by, it was really nice. The lunch bell rang and most of us scurried into the lodge, I get to cut the line as my superhero is lunch dishes. Lunch today was tomato soup and grilled cheese so I was very excited to eat. I went back to the stage to eat with everyone, I sat on the concrete of the stage and used a bench as a table. I had gotten up to get salt and pepper and as I was adding the pepper to my soup I had it snatched out of my hands by Emery, he disagreed with the amount of pepper I was adding, he said it was “too much”. I say there’s no such thing. Roxy pulled out their tarot cards and gave me a reading, I don’t remember what I got but I remember thinking the cards were pretty.
Larkin came up to the stage to call me to the dish pit, I soon found out why as we were immensely backed up. We had run out of empty dish trays and the drying racks were full, I rushed to bus my dish before I threw on an apron and quickly got to drying, we got through it pretty fast once Epic, Koji, Larkin, Nova, and I, got to work. The drying racks, along with the dish pit itself, were basically empty by the time my thirty minutes were up. I had asked Roxy and Zoe to help me with my hair as I don’t have any curly hair products besides shampoo and conditioner, earlier in the day we had decided to have ourselves a little shower party in the Dogwood all genders bathroom. As lunch moved into siesta, I left the dish pit and got my shower things together and headed to Dogwood.
Roxy and Zoe showered before I did, we listened to the new Phoebe Bridgers album along with some Boygenius and Indigo de Souza, it was a good time. I showered once Roxy was out, I washed my hair and Zoe gave me some products to put in my hair. As much as I love my curly hair, I have very little idea of how to actually take care of it. At some point Phantom and Violet came in and started a shower party of their own, I loaned them my hairbrushes. After I had sufficiently scrunched all the products into my hair I went back to my cabin and put my toiletries back in their spot on the desk next to my bunk. We had firmly moved into the second workshop slot now. I talked to Esther, my cabin mate who sleeps across from me, for a bit and then I went back out into the world in search of my friends.
I quickly found two sitting in the field, in the form of Ethan and Fred. They were talking about LARP and I listened, I didn’t really have much to add but I still found it enjoyable to sit on the grass with them. At some point, Fred got up and left to do some dishes and Ethan and I stayed in the field together, I found it to be quite relaxing. Ethan and I parted ways after a bit and I went back to Laurel to write this very blog. I took off my shoes and sat and pondered on what to write in my bunk for what remained of the third workshop slot, time flies when you’re having fun. It felt a lot like journaling, I had brought my journal, but I’ve only journaled proper once so far this session, blogging scratches that itch in a similar way. As my blogging got me closer, and closer to the present moment, it got too paradoxical to blog anymore, and the bell for the long workshop slot had been rung a few minutes earlier.
I went to the lodge to attend Blake and Nathen’s workshop titled, “Fun partner dance moves for prom”. I love partner dancing and had attended two other workshops on it earlier in the session, along with “Dance on the daily”. Dance on the daily is a thirty minute opportunity to dance in forest dell, you can partner dance or just boogie on your own. I’ve always enjoyed myself when I’ve gone. Some of the moves Blake and Nathen taught I already knew most of the setup for, it was pretty easy to pick up. In the middle of the workshop, Kilam and Sully ran out of the dish pit in their Home Depot orange rubber aprons and out of the lodge yelling for Antonio, a member of site staff.
Their urgency, along with the sound of rushing water coming from the open doorway they had just exited from intrigued me and some others, we poked our heads in and saw the dish sanitizer had water gushing out of it. (It’s not supposed to do that!) With a few “oh no’s” and “that can’t be good’s”, we went back to partner dancing. We learned two different dips and a lift. It was a lot of fun dancing with them. I prefer to follow when partner dancing, I’m rather short in stature which makes it difficult to be a good lead, but being dipped and lifted was really fun, I’m pretty sure I had a smile on my face the whole time once Blake and Nathen set us loose with our newfound skills.
Before they set us free, Blake and Nathen told us to dance with at least three different people, with that caveat in mind I started with Denny so we could show Ethan, who had joined the workshop right at the very end, the moves we had just learned. He picked it up pretty quickly and Denny found a new partner and Ethan and I danced together with the music that Blake was playing. I danced with a bunch of my friends, including (but not exclusively), Denny, Ethan, Everest, and Zoe. I probably had the most fun dancing with Ethan, he had run a swing dance workshop and is also just a really skilled partner dancer. He taught me how to do an A-frame, it’s a swing dance move where the follow, in this case me, gets lifted off the ground and spreads their legs, forming an A shaped frame with them. It was a really good workshop that I had oh so much fun doing. The workshop slot was soon over and it was soon to be dinner time.
I continued hanging out in the lodge with people, Denny and I talked about core workouts and the benefits of swimming and water aerobics. Kiki found some strange yellow liquid on one of the sinks in the lodge, just your typical Sunday, y’know? Dinner time had arrived, burrito bowls with all the fixings. I was first in line for dinner, which if you’ve ever been to NBTSC, you’ll know that I was anything but. Senior staff after senior staff cut in front of me, I don’t mind that, though. I find it rather funny, to be honest. And it’s fun to grumble to the other people in line with you about it. Soon I had gotten my food and I ate with Ethan and Elijah at the stone table, it was rather nice. We talked about the prom theme, the renaissance, and history, the renaissance. Ethan and I walked to his tent and I talked about the history of the enlightenment. It was a good time. We went to bus our dishes and the check in bell rang.
Evening meeting was ten minutes shorter than it usually is, helps to give the prom committee enough time to set up and whatnot, along with giving the campers plenty of time to get ready. Which is all fine and dandy except for the fact that evening meetings hardly ever end on time. In other words, the junior staff were rather stressed. We started the meeting off by singing the following.
“These hands are strong. This heart is wide.
This mind, this mind is wise.
These hands are strong. This heart is wide.
I am on your side.
There is work to be done, there is work to be done. With these hands, this heart, this mind.
There is work to be done, there is work to be done. I am on your side.”
We sung it in a round, we had done it previously in a morning meeting so it was easy to do again. The meeting ended a few minutes over, still giving everyone enough time to get ready. I went to my cabin to get started.
Before I even stepped foot in my cabin I talked to Kiki and Sophia on Lyrtle porch about Kiki’s hair and how to style it. I gave what advice I could before I had to hold myself accountable and walk away so I would actually have enough time to get myself ready. I threw on my dress, it was a skirt I had thrifted a few years ago that I, with the help of my mom, sewed into a sleeveless dress. I put on my jewelry and shoes and went back out to Lyrtle. The energy right before prom is always electrifying, everyone getting ready and feeling excited and slightly impatient… there’s really nothing else like it. I gave a safety pin to Charlotte and to Gabby, I laced up Gracie’s corset, and I told a lot of people their outfits were amazing (they were). I am abysmal at makeup, but I luckily have a lot of friends that aren’t, me and Nova went to the Dogwood bathroom to look for said friends. And we found them!
Caitlin, Emery, Elijah, Emilio, Koi, Kheon, Leon, Lily, Roxy, Zoe, and now Nova and I, had ourselves a little bathroom getting ready for prom party. It was a lot of fun, people were coming in and out, Zoe did my makeup and covered me in glitter, same as she did last year, we took pictures together and I felt pretty. Elijah made the comment that his favorite part of prom was getting ready for prom, I can’t say that I disagree with him, but I like dancing to good music a lot more than hanging out in the bathroom together, even with as fun as that can be. The bell for the start of prom rang, we stayed in the bathroom for a while longer before making our way over.
Me, Caitlin, Koi, and Lily all headed over to the stage, a crowd of people were waiting to get their pictures taken and a group was already dancing. The music was still “quiet”, you didn’t have to shout too loudly if you were on the dance floor, that was certain to change. I waited for Roxy and Zoe to come join us so we could take a catwalk photo, us being Emery, Nova, and me. I did a mild amount of dancing while I waited, the music was very much fitting the theme of the night quite well, I remember they played “Kingdom Dance” from Tangled which made me very happy. Soon Roxy and Zoe joined us and we all ran up on stage, the lights were so bright I could barely see the lens of the camera. With the catwalk over and done with we left the stage and hung around, the music was very renaissance, which I enjoyed, but it wasn’t quite the music I like to bust a move to. I talked to people, and dancing lightly here and there, and suddenly it was time.
The music turned up and all the build up of day and evening spent getting ready was made worth it. With the cold outside air surrounding us, the only way to really stay warm was to dance, and dance I did. I don’t remember what songs were played, but I do remember holding people’s hands and kicking in a big circle on beat. Tiring? Yes. Lots of fun? Even more yes. I did a lot of hooking arms together and spinning and/or skipping in a circle with a few different people. When a song I didn’t really want to dance to came on, I walked away and took a break from the boogieing and sat with Ethan and watched everyone else have fun for a while. At some point Emma came by and we had a very good hypothetical conversation about hypothetical scenarios and situations. And at some point snack/dessert was ready and everyone filled the lodge and formed a single file line.
It was chips and gingerbread in that order. You could still hear the music playing through the open windows; faintly, but there. I went back outside with Ethan to eat our snack and continue talking, the lack of people on the dance floor was striking and as everyone finished their snack it slowly filled back up. “Distrubia” by Rihanna played and me and Ethan partner danced to it, a vaguely strange song choice for partner dancing, but I stand by it. We stayed on the floor for quite a long time, switching between partner dancing and dancing in small circles of people. We even did a few A-frames. As the night went on, the pure joy I felt from dancing and laughing with my friends made the smile on my face rather permanently placed there. I remember a song playing, I didn’t know the name of it, but I do know that I have never felt more like I was in a coming of age movie.
The whole night felt like I was suddenly made the main character of an early 2000s film about becoming who you are by the time summer is over. I had a wonderfully dizzy feeling in my head the whole night long, I hope I’ll get to feel that again someday. I don’t know if I’ve ever had that much fun dancing anywhere else. The songs continued to play, and I continued to dance, and the final song played, “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan. I screamed the words as loudly as I could with my friends, jumping around and acting like we were all in a music video, intentionally or otherwise. There was truly something magic in the air. It lingered for a long time as me, Ethan, Emilio, Roxy, and Zoe all started laughing and joking with each other. We took horrible photos and videos and laughed, and laughed, and laughed. My cheeks ached from smiling so hard.
It was past midnight and time for bed, I walked with Ethan to his tent, carrying the shield from his prom outfit. He got his toiletries and we walked to my cabin to get mine. We got ready for bed with Milo and Merle in the all genders bathroom that lives in the Lyrtle porch. I tried my best to get the glitter off of my face, I didn’t succeed, sadly. I brushed my teeth and said goodnight to Ethan and started getting ready for bed. I took off my jewelry, changed out of my dress and into pajamas, and finally got all cozy in my bed. Tomorrow was a sleep in day, and I had no idea what that day was going to bring, nor was I worried in about that in the slightest.
My name is Ben, I also go by Paige and Geode. I am seventeen and I use They/He pronouns. This was my second time writing a blog, which is a little strange considering this is my fifth year and seventh session of camp… oh well! I didn’t introduce myself sooner as I wanted to do my best to put you into my shoes, I hope you could feel the magic that this day made me feel.
Remember that I love you, Ben <3
–Ben, Camper