Summer Stitches

I'm feeling a little nostalgic for summer camp right now, so here's a camp story!

In 2012, I was on Support Staff, meaning I worked behind the scenes and didn't have any campers of my own. The camp nurse found me and told me there was a girl hurt on a trail, and she had one counselor waiting with her. I needed to go find them and help the counselor carry her to the car.

I drove the Gator as far up the trail as possible so that we could carry her the least distance possible. When I found them, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was one of my past campers! And she wasn't terribly awfully hurt; she just had a big gash on her knee from tripping on a rock.

I got her back to the nurse, who decided I should take the girl to the ER for stitches. While I was on the phone with the camper's mom explaining the situation and trying to get her insurance info, the nurse was trying to find another support staff to go with me to the ER. For safety/liability issues we have to have two adults traveling with a camper. Whatever. She found Ben who was gonna go with me. Ben is a very hilarious person.

The camper Kaylee was glad I was with her because she's kinda shy and she remembered me from two years ago. She did not know Ben but he quickly changed that. We loaded up in an old janky minivan with weirdly plush seats, and we pretended it was a spaceship the whole time. We made up astronaut nicknames for each other and used those names the whole time.  Kaylee was awesome and brave and didn't cry when she got three stitches on her knee. She even got to talk to her mom on the phone, which is not something campers are ever allowed to do because it makes homesickness worse.

Of course, I wasn't actually the one getting stitches, but I'd say that for the three of us it was probably the most fun ER trip anyone in the world has every had. We stopped at Dairy Queen before returning to camp, and we swore Kaylee to secrecy. Teaching them good morals, hah! We took the spaceship back to camp and she had an awesome gross knee to show her friends. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the best part of her week.