Nanjemoy, Maryland. Not a lot of people know where that is, but in that small, middle of no where, dirt road town, is the best camp I have ever been able to go to. Lions Camp Merrick. The campgrounds used today started up in the 1930's, and since then has been used for Girl Scout camps, church camps, and camps that serve those that are blind, deaf, or diabetic. When I moved to the United States in 2007, I was going into third grade and starting to learn how to take care of my diabetes more and more. Of course there were so many things I didn't know, and I didn't know anyone my age that had it. For a while I stuck to learning from my mom and my doctors, but in 2009, my mom told me about a sleep away camp in Nanjemoy, Maryland for all diabetics. I was beyond excited to meet kids my age that actually understood what I had to deal with every day. Of course I appreciated the help I got from the adults in my life, but it was hard for them to really understand how crappy I feel when I'm low.
Summer rolled around and my parents helped me pack all my stuff to spend a week in a cabin with eleven other girls and three counselors. The drive was about two and a half hours and I was jumping with excitement the whole time. I couldn't sit still. As we got closer to the camp I became ecstatic. After settling in and setting up my bunk bed, a wave of sadness washed over me. I had never been without an adult for so long and I was scared to be on my own with people I didn't know. I begged my mom to take me home, but looking back now I'm so glad she didn't. If I had gone home I would have missed out of so many friendships and opportunities.
In the one week I was there I made some of the most amazing friends ever. They understood why I acted different when my blood sugar was low or high, and we all checked our blood sugars together so no one felt like everyone was watching them. We did everything together and diabetes was one thing we all had in common, so there were no questions asked and you could say "I need to change my site" and not have to explain what a site is. Each year had three weeks to pick from. I went one week for the first few years and then I started going for two, and then three weeks. We had a schedule and every day we would all check our blood sugars and go to breakfast. We did all kinds of activities throughout the week like archery, canoeing, rope climbing and rock walls and swimming. We also had daily ed sessions where we were split up by age groups and learned about our diabetes. The ed sessions really helped me become more independent with managing diabetes at home and have a better understanding of it.
At the end of the week we had a bonfire. Every cabin sat on the wooden benches surrounding the fire pit and we all sang different songs as loud as we could. The last part of the campfire was completely silent. Earlier in the week, we wrote down everything we hate about diabetes, and at the fire, we went up cabin by cabin and threw the papers into the fire. The camp director, Bryan, said it was a way for us to let go of all the bad things that come with diabetes until we come back next year. When he said this all of the girls in the oldest cabin would hug each other and cry. I didn't understand why they would cry until it was my friends and I in the oldest cabin. It was our last year, our last time to throw a paper into the fire, our last campfire. Everyone was crying and hugging each other until our counselor Kelley told us to shut up because we were staying for two more weeks.
Going to Lions Camp Merrick has taught me a lot about both my diabetes and how to manage it and about friendships. Had I gone home that first year I would have missed so much. For years I looked forward to going to my home away from home and spending time with my second family. Now that I'm older, I can't be a camper anymore but I can be a counselor, which is exactly what I plan on doing this summer.
