There was a little hill at the back of my house growing up, and really it was more of a steep incline that ended at the neighbor’s yard behind ours. A lot happened on that hill: mud cakes, gardening with my grandfather, fire work detonation. But one of my favorite things to do was to run down it. Sometimes my cousins and I would climb to the top to just run down. It was exhilarating. You had to dodge rocks, and the stone wall at the bottom of the hill. The soil was really loose and so sometimes you’d slip and stain your clothes in the red volcanic dirt. You had to hop over the grandpa’s vegetables and around the large thorny bougainvillea plant. But it was worth the rush.

It’s only 4 days left to our first set of campers, and today the staff are getting a last half day off before the REAL madness begins. We’re mini golfing and bowling, playing soccer in the park, and eating pizza. It’s hard to compare year to year, but these last four days are usually very blurry. They speed by like the Doppler affect. You only remember mere seconds of what’s happened, before the sound passes you by. We have a staff banquet tomorrow, dress rehearsals for our plays, and much bonding and tom foolery to accomplish.

It’s worth it though. We’ll have a lot of rocks to dodge, a few thorns, maybe even a pumpkin or two, but as we barrel down this hill to Junior 1, it’ll definitely be worth the rush.


-Baker John