That One Time At (Accidental) Bible Camp —How Mistakenly Going To Church Camp Made Me A Stronger Writer
A tale of Jesus, jellyfish, and suffering. Oh, and Choco-Tacos.
I didn’t know I was going to Bible Camp. My parents, who literally chose and signed me up for said camp, didn’t know either.
To be fair, the brochure was pretty vague, but…the signs were there. My mom and dad just didn’t bother to read the whole thing. The attitude was more: “It has great safety ratings, and the bayside setting looks gorgeous. Let’s sign you up, kid!”
Thus began a very unwanted 2–week-long spiritual journey that not only caused me to renounce Christianity forever, but also made me gain at least 4 pounds in pure, Christian-Hippie-Counselor-fueled stress.
Oh, and there were jellyfish. A lot of them. I f***ing hate jellyfish.
It Began With Good Intentions — As Most Mistakes Do
Sometimes you have a wonderful, bestseller idea that ends up being…well, something else. Like so many fine writers, my parents and I had grand aspirations for my first summer camp experience.
Ah, summer camp — is there anything else so quintessentially American? The sun, the watersports, the little-girl politics that teach you your place in the world… In our humble minds, we envisioned campfires and stories about bears (or some other stereotypical bullsh**).
Instead, I got lectured about the sins of Eve and was told that Revelation would fall upon us at any moment and I had to be prepared. All I wanted was s’mores and gossip, but all I got were disarmingly nice-looking counselors telling me that the fires of Hell were nigh.
And that’s okay! As is the case with writers’ many, many story ideas, not all of our experiences can live up to the expectations we set for them. There will be times in every writer’s life where they have to accept that moment when hopes and reality diverge, and they’ll need to make a choice: either you stick with the project and make the most of it, or you move on.
Although in the case of Bible Camp, I didn’t actually have a choice about staying or leaving. I was stuck. Trapped…
