A storm of wind and rain may have hit Camp Tall Timbers late last night, but today another storm is brewing: the Drama class is furiously preparing for the opening night of their play, Zombeo and Juliet. The cast met for a secretive meeting after breakfast, and the final dress rehearsal will take place during free swim. My camper, Sydney Sachs, will be starring as Juliet, and she’s taking the stress with remarkable calm and good humor. Tonight’s the big night, and the show must go on even if some people don’t really know their lines that well. I am not personally associated with the play in any way, and so from my comfortable distance I have no doubt that it will go off without a hitch.
I have no doubt that the play will be excellent because the play is a metaphor for Camp Tall Timbers as a whole, and I never doubt that Tall Timbers will be excellent. Sometimes you’re an hour before an evening activity, stressed about how it will go off, not sure if you broke the cabins up into groups in just the right way, and then it goes perfectly, and you’re left feeling proud and elated and just happy that the kids had a good time. The camp play and camp itself are like jumping off a diving board: you’re standing there looking down at the water, wondering if you’re going to belly flop into what looks like nothing less than arctic-temperature waters, and then you steel yourself and jump and it’s the most refreshing feeling in the world.
The camp play and camp itself and jumping off a diving board are remarkably like spending a day at Hershey Park, as we all did yesterday. Sometimes you have to hold someone’s hand as the roller coaster inches up the massive incline. Sometimes that hand is the most reassuring thing in the world, and it holds you over until you round the top and come hurtling down the other side, and you realize that you’re just fine. You realize that you are capable of so much more than you imagined.
Other Tall Timbers Happenings
– Ella Perkins and Makin Sowell hit bullseyes in archery
– Orange Crush beat the Red Bulls in flag football
– In Girl Power Hour, Jen Heiman, Grace Brown and Anna Hutzler won Mafia
– Katherine Barnes, Hayley Sanders and Grace Brown tied in Sleeping Lions
– The Yellow Spotted Hippopotami beat the Purple Nurples in flag football, and will advance to the Superbowl
– Sydney LaPorte scored her first touchdown
– Buns (Ryan Bernstein) hit a golf ball to the very top of the hill