DJ Goes to Camp!

I’m back from Australia and will post about that later.

I picked up DJ yesterday, from a weeklong overnight boys camp. His first.

He had a great time. The counselors considered him a ‘good kid’. I could have told him that, he is a great kid.

Being a strong ‘I’, and having had no experience of ‘camp’ in my youth, I was a bit apprehensive. What if he had a horrible experience? What if he was bullied? What if he died in a freak accident?

I had a conversation with DJ a number of weeks prior to this. I said some things I shouldn’t have and he ‘set me right’.
Me: Some kids might be bullies and say things or hurt you. I’m worried something bad might happen.
DJ: Mom! [exasperated] Life is too short to worry about something bad happening. I want to live to a 100 and have lots of experiences. I’m going to be ok. I know how to take care of myself.
Me: [blown away] You’re right! [I’ll shut up now and stop worrying]

So… a kid did hit him, punched him in the arm.
DJ: This kids comes up behind me and nudges past me and pushes me, on purpose. I nudge him back a little. He turns around and his huge gold chain, which is like a dog collar, whips me in the neck, so I push it off me. He says, “No one touches my stuff that way!” and then WHAM punches me in the arm. The counselor came and took him away.

He was really surprised by the amount of complaining. And the amount of cuss words that some of the kids used. At least 3 in every sentence. He said most of those kids were violent, dumb and complained non-stop.
Yeah… welcome to the real world.

Me: What did you learn about yourself this past week?
DJ: That everyone’s annoying.
Me: [laughing] Yeah… but that’s what you observed about everyone else. What did you learn about yourself?
DJ: That I don’t like heights.

They had a climbing wall and he got up a third of the way. Apparently he must have told them about MB [yes, the same girl from school he has a crush on] as his newfound friends cheered him on to take a few more steps for her. Then he called it quits.

Me: What was the best part about camp?
DJ: Meeting new kids, trying new things.
Me: What was the worse part about camp?
DJ: Another kid… he was annoying… Not paying attention, rude, obnoxious. The counselor pulled me aside and said he had ADD and not to let it get to me.

Later that night at dinner he groaned when given the small fork and knife. The time has come… to change to the big fork. The adults’ fork. Subtle these changes.