The Hardest Test of my Summer

I had a crazy summer this year in 2020. There were many things that went down at summer camp, but one moment that stands out most to me actually took place on my 19th birthday. Even though we couldn’t formally celebrate my birthday, it was still a day that I will forever remember. I was hired as a counselor and a big part of my job was to be entertaining. Sometimes that requires getting out of my comfort zone to get a good laugh out of the campers, but the temporary discomfort is worth it. Here’s what went down.

When it storms at camp, they rarely if ever have a plan B, so new activities get made up on the spot. All of the cabins got called to the pavilion, so we went and sat down. Nick started walking down the aisle and came up to the front. He exclaimed to us “Welcome to Game Afternoon!” which usually was a night occurrence, but due to stormy circumstances it came earlier in the day. There were multiple games that happened during this, but I want to specifically focus on one.

Nick told the crowd, “Next, send up a counselor who doesn’t have any dietary restrictions.” I volunteered myself and went up. Plastic bowls got put in front of us and I started getting nervous because I started to realize what I signed up for. Nick then came around with a tray of this dessert that we called oreo torte. It was vanilla pudding mixed with oreo crumbs and caramel. I started feeling a little better, and my heart rate started going down again. Little did I realize that this was only the beginning. Once everyone got served, Nick disappeared for a few seconds and then came back with a wheeled cart that had one of those “wheel of fortune” spinning things on a little stand.

“YOU THOUGHT THAT THIS WAS IT?” Nick cried dramatically, followed with an evil laugh. He turned the wheel away from us so that the counselors participating couldn’t see it and then explained, “Here is what is going to happen. Everyone has oreo torte, but we are about to add some fancy ‘ingredients’ to juice this competition up. Each counselor will get 4 additional ingredients, and we will be spinning the wheel to determine what each ingredient is.” I ended up with 3 ingredients to start off. They were marshmallows, a hershey bar, and barbeque sauce. The barbeque sauce might seem nasty since it was in the oreo torte, but that wasn’t the worst ‘ingredient.’ Nick started the fourth round of ingredients. The “mystery item” wasn’t picked yet on the wheel and Nick was really hoping someone would get this item. His hopes came true as one of the female counselors got it. Nick disappeared once again and came back with a clear box. Inside the box was a small layer of sand and alive, jumping, and apparently crunchy crickets. He placed one in the girl’s bowl. Eventually my turn came up.

He spinned the wheel again and it landed on Hershey bars. He started grabbing another hershey bar but then he realized that I already had a hershey bar. He spinned again and purposely got it to land on the mystery item. He grabbed his box again, opened it up, and placed the cricket on my hershey bar. My face immediately turned red and I asked Nick, “yo Nick, do I actually need to eat this?” He nodded yes with a smile on his face. I started eating everything except the hershey bar and the cricket, but I was gagging a lot. I ended up not finishing the bowl and got last place. I didn’t end up throwing up, but I felt very uneasy and had to get the taste out of my mouth with a packet of skittles.

The summer had many other memorable moments, like waking up at 4:30 in the morning to get the nurse because my co counselor was throwing up a flamethrower of hot wings, or hyping up my campers for the mud olympics, but there is no other way, place, or people who I’d want to spend my 19th birthday with.