Ok, I’m ready to write about my last week now.
I was pretty excited when I found out that my kid was a twin, and that both of them would be attending camp. I asked the director about this and she said I told her I am a twin in my interview. I vaguely remember this because I think she asked me something unique about me and I said that I’m an identical twin.
My first thought was how hard it must’ve been to hear that you’re having identical twins, and that both of them would have MD. Upon seeing these guys though, I think that they were extremely lucky. The form of MD they have mostly effects their legs and muscle strength, but they can still use their upper body to move themselves around, and needed the least care of all the kids (save one, who is a walker).
Anyway, we were told that both the kids were really quiet and we should pay attention to what they say to each other to find out what they need, and that advice paid off. They really didn’t talk much the first few days, and were quite shy overall. They were very sharp and paid attention to everything though, and were quick to laugh at things that were said and jokes that were made. Their laugh was very hilarious, a big wide grin with tongue sticking out a bit. Being 15, they brought pens that make burping and farting noises, and laughed profusely whenever they used them. Needless to say, there were lots of fart jokes that week.
The rest of the kids in the cabin were just hilarious. They all reminded me so much of Cory. So smart, witty, sarcastic, and entirely indefatigable. At one point on the last night they kept talking about going to harass the neighboring cabins, so we locked the door to keep them inside. 2 kids went to the door and struggled a bit but finally did get the deadbolt unlocked. They let nothing stop them. On the last night, the director and some other counselors joined us at the fire (to tell us to go to bed) and burned their name tags. Now, when you lose your nametag at summer camp you have to do a dance and song in front of the whole camp to get it back.
I think that the MDA has a challenging task in making the summer camp enjoyable for all the kids when the ages go from 5 or so up to 18, and interest varies so much between age groups. They did a pretty good job overall, but some things that I did not appreciate were changing the activity for my group because they thought the older kids would not be as interested or able due to the progression of MD at their age. I did not appreciate that at all, as I think the kids come to camp to be to treated equally.
Overall I had a great time, and I saw so many kids who just reminded me of cory that it felt very freeing overall. When I left I missed them terribly because it was just such a gift to be around so many people who reminded me of him.
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