Simple Lessons

Kevin Nowaskey

Without further delay, I bring you my experience of sleeping in tents with thirty-five sixth and seventh graders at Camp Mahackeno. The lessons I have learned here are probably far more valuable than the impractical facts that cover the pages of many textbooks, and I embrace their importance with all my being.

7pm-8pm: I learn that my first aid knowledge had been retained

The night’s activities (more like wars) begin with a so called friendly game of two-hand touch football, in which a boy is pushed by an ultra-competitive opponent into the only sharp rock on the field, drawing an amount of blood grossly out of proportion to the size of the wound. The nurse had gone home at six.

8:05pm-9pm: I learn responsibility

As the activity of s’mores creation runs increasingly out of control, a flaming marshmallow rockets across the fire pit, coming within inches of several campers’ faces. I am relatively sure my heart stopped for a few seconds in the midst of that incident, only to resume beating after the dewy earth extinguished the once fiery projectile.

9pm-9:15pm: I learn the value of solitude

The night’s only silence comes during a fifteen (closer to eight) minute “quiet period” to allow counselors time to rest.

9:30pm:11:30pm: I learn that human nature is universal

As I walk around the campsite, I hear distinct communication with indistinct words between the boys’ and girls’ tents.  There is inquiry into a game of “spin the bottle.” The proposal is quickly vanquished by my booming voice promising a phone call home if any members of the opposite sex are found in the same tent. The night wears on, an I am painfully immersed in the world of today‘s youth.

12:00am-2am: I learn that some lessons teach themselves

Responding to three boys INSISTING they watch the latest James Bond movie from outside of their tents, I tell them that this probably isn’t the best idea, considering that this is Connecticut, the birthplace of Lyme Disease and the nation’s third highest state for West Nile virus carrying mosquitoes. They refuse to move into their tents, receive a rainbow variety of bites within twenty minutes, and spend the next day wearing down their fingernails on their skin. I came very close to proclaiming “I told ya so” the next day. I refrained from doing so.

2am-5am: I learn patience

I spend the duration of the early morning fixing an overflowing toilet in the girl’s bathroom, chasing away a friendly family of skunks with wiffle balls, and investigating the validity of complaints that there were raccoons “fighting” right outside their tents. At this point, you must think I am making-up stories for the enhancement of my essay, but I assure you that these all actually happened.

During that night I discovered things I would not have ever dreamed of learning in school. It was truly a night of learning in its most basic form.  I was far from the classroom, and yet completely in touch with my education. And though I got no sleep, I would do it again tomorrow. This was one test I didn‘t mind taking.