Taryn is away on her yearly summer adventure. Right now she is at summer camp. She and John have attended the same one since they were in the 5th grade. The last two years John has had to skip camp to play club soccer. She’s on her own. Taryn is a smart girl, always has been. She’s trustworthy and makes good choices. I trust her completely.

This year she is not simply attending camp as a camper. She is in a program for “Leaders In Training” or LIT. This program is for kids who are a little too old for regular camp, but not quite old enough to be a camp counselor. The LIT years are fun because they don’t have to participate in activities they don’t enjoy, like open swim and attending a few other events.

The other big bonus is cell phone time. A few times a week she can check her cell phone out of the office and has free reign to call whomever she wants for a half an hour. After years of camp with no communication other than letters – this is a very big deal. On Tuesday she called me and John. (As much as she hates to admit it, she loves her dumb twin brother.)

I was worried because she didn’t seem that excited about camp. The staff has changed over and she’s there at a different time of summer than usual. She was out of sorts and a little sad. I thought that maybe this would be the last time she attended summer camp. It made me sad for her.

But today she was much more spirited. She was happy, making jokes, back to her usual self.

I asked if she had made some new friends. She said yes, mostly other LIT’s and counselors. She went on to say that on the previous day she had two hours off so she laid down for a few minutes, then went into the conference room. There were two other LIT’s there already and they all hung out and talked. The other LIT’s were from France and Columbia. They asked her a lot of questions about life in Alaska. She said they kept asking her questions, sometimes both at once! She had to ask them to slow down, because she had a hard time understanding them when they talked at once.

I was so happy to hear her so happy and to know she was making friends and having fun.

Then she dropped the hammer.

The Columbian and French LIT’s…are boys.

So…this is the last time she’s going to camp.