That time we accidentally triggered a camp-wide emergency. 😁

We didn't mean to. I swear!

My dear Kindred Spirit,

In August of 1979, I was 12 years old, and spending a week at Camp Wyomoco with my best friend, Heidi. That summer, we were especially excited because we had signed up for canoeing class together. We imagined ourselves gliding around the large camp pond, with the wind in our hair and the sun on our faces.

The reality was that the first 3 days of canoe lessons were spent learning Important Canoe Safety Things from counselors who had a lot to say about safety. Almost as much as they did about the million and one possible strokes to use for paddling. Which, to our dismay, we learned about while sitting in a canoe on dry land.

Finally, on day 4, we earned the right to paddle around without adult (teen, really) interference. We donned our big, puffy, orange life jackets and tried to gracefully push the surprisingly heavy canoe into the water, while also getting into it. Miraculously, we made it!

One of the more interesting things we learned in those safety lectures was that if a canoe tips over, it traps an air pocket underneath it.

Naturally, after paddling around for a bit and discovering it wasn’t all that thrilling on a calm pond that wasn’t as big as it had seemed from shore, we decided to test this out for ourselves.

Flipping the canoe over was much easier than getting it into the pond in the first place. We ducked our heads under and happily treaded water while chatting away in the humid air pocket.

Our voices echoed.

We laughed and made weird noises just to hear the sound bounce around. Which made us laugh harder.

We were having an absolutely fabulous time hosting a tiny under-canoe party.

When we finally emerged from beneath the canoe we discovered that we had the pond to ourselves. All the other campers were lined up on shore, standing with their assigned buddies, hands clasped and raised up in the air. The head counselor was frantically barking orders (or so it looked to us) into her walkie talkie. Other counselors were arriving breathlessly on the beach, while those who were already there counted buddies or gathered up ropes and lifebuoys.

Heidi said to me, “Someone must be missing.”

It only took us a few seconds to realize that someone was us!

We shouted and waved and began to tow our canoe back to shore.

The head counselor looked furious. My favorite counselor, Jane, looked relieved.

Heidi and me? We could not stop laughing!

The more they tried to tell us that two campers missing and an overturned canoe floating by itself in the middle of the pond was serious business, the funnier we thought it was.

We tried to explain that we didn’t mean to trigger a campwide emergency. We were just practicing what we had been taught. Couldn’t they see the humor in this?

No. They absolutely could not.

But try as we might to take them as seriously as they wanted us to, one of us would start laughing again and that would trigger giggles in the other.

I’ve been thinking lately about how much freedom there was in that kind of innocence.

We were sorry to have upset them, but not enough to take their outrage personally. We were just being ourselves. Two goofy, sleep-deprived besties, having a great time.We weren’t hurt and neither was anyone else.

That was all we cared about. That, and getting some lunch. Treading water works up an appetite!

I think a lot of women miss that feeling more than they realize.

Not the hunger. And not necessarily the canoe part.

But, rather, the feeling of being completely unselfconscious.

Of being engaged in one’s own life and not caring much about what others think.

Of seeing the humor in life and not taking it too seriously.

The way we were before the teen years and self consciousness took over, only to be followed by an adulthood heavily organized around responsibility and obligation.

Sigh. Do you remember how it felt to be free to be you?

This is why I created Camp Vibrant.

Not because women need another self-improvement project. We really don’t.

But because I think women deserve spaces where they can loosen their grip a little.

Laugh hard.

Talk late.

Be lazy.

Tell the truth about how they really feel.

Be gloriously unserious sometimes.

And maybe remember that the vibrant, alive version of themselves is not actually gone.

She’s just been busy keeping the canoe upright for everyone else.

Camp Vibrant opens soon, and I would absolutely love to have you there.

You can read all about it here.

And if you do come, be warned, I may not be able to restrain myself from recommending unauthorized underwater canoe experiments.

Whether you take part, of course, will be entirely up to you!

See you at camp,

Laura

P.S. The early bird bonus is still available: a 90 minute session with me, to be used anytime this summer. A $500 value! Sign up before midnight central time on May 15th.

P.P.S. Want to talk with me about Camp Vibrant before committing? Hit reply, let me know, and we’ll set something up.