personal narrative

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Personal Narrative.
It was in the midst of summer. The night was the longest one I could ever remember. I was fourteen at the time. This is the day when time dragged its feet all over. Waiting became unbearable. The notion of the expected continued to drive me mad while in my bed. My mind started contemplating on the events to come. The plan for the summer camp with my friend in a few moments that seemed not to arrive will be a practical reality.
Finally, the sun rose. The much awaited moment had arrived. I rushed in efforts to prepare my luggages as the bright sunlight gave life to my room. This was a sign of the welcoming nature of the outdoor experience to come. The chill breeze came with the sound of my friend waving at me from outside their door. From a far I could see her sister who had been studying in Washington. “What an experience it was going to be to be by adding another fun member in our team?”, my mind registered. They were waiting for their brother, to get his car out of the garage.
After a long ride, we arrived at the bus station. There were many kids with us. I sat at the near-end of seats, with my friends. In the bus, the sleepless nights came to haunt me, but I was excited to go, and have fun with my friends. At the summer camp people were grouped based on their age. “Just like that you’re sixteen,” and so I did. The summer camp was, surrounded by green forest mountains with beautiful plain, there were many different culture buildings, Russian, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Korean, Czech, Latvian, and even modern ones, each group had a unique style of building.

Our group theme building was African; it was built with woods, same as those built by a group of pastoralists called Maasai that originates from East Africa.
The day had a clear blue sky, with the sun shining on us. The first day started, with room assigning. Every group had two teachers, one male, and one female. Our teachers called every member, of our group to assemble, in the main hall. The main hall was like big old church, from medieval era built with wood, along with big old bell at the top of the building, and inside there were chairs that made round shape. When everyone gathered in the hall and sat down, the female teacher explained to us our activity for the day, and brief laws and rules. She said in a friendly tone, and whenever she stopped saying for a moment, the male teacher supported her idea, with detailed explanations. When they ended explaining the rules and regulations, the female teacher requested that we introduce ourselves.
Then from the left side of the teachers, we started introducing ourselves, beginning with name, everybody shared their talents. Person after, person people were saying “Hi, my name is A, and I’m good at basketball,” “Like to sing” or “Good dancer,” and time for my introduction was near, the pressure was pilling on. My legs were weakly shaky, along with unconfident voice, I thought to myself, great nervous level increased, as I started speaking, I would barely utter a word then a few students from the group started laughing at me. I started thinking of myself, I had not even said a word, and I am Joker, the clown. After a few seconds, with my red face, I said: “Hello everyone, my name’s Alice, I study at Riversdale school.” I came here to have some fun, with my friends”. “I love playing football,” I replied with nervousness as the male teacher inquired to ask about my talent. Everybody started gazing at me, like they saw a female Ronaldo the legend, nervousness beset me. I was sweating all over due to stage fright as I had never spoken in front of such a crowd before. I had to beat this growing dread.
The hall where the meeting was to be held was huge and a perfect representation of a modern venue. This was contrary to my imagination. The members of our group were, sitting on opposite side of the room. There I noticed someone in our group who wore a blue with hazel eyes that will capture anyone's attention from a distance. My attention shifted immediately from the plate of food in my hands. He had a well chiseled facial structure. I wondered if they make like him anymore! His smile was perfect, no words can explain the extent of his beauty. I had to gather the courage to talk to this idol among men. But how could I manage with the fear crippling my soul. Second thoughts were streaming in my mind blocking any kind of a sound decision. The embarrassment of being turned down grew with each second that passed.
After we finished dinner, we had ten minutes break to relax in our room. The room, had five beds, five end tables, and two windows. The place had apparently been visited by a lot of people most of whom had carved their names to the wooden furniture that were in the room, some of the carvings read, “We came we saw, and we conquered.” Even as I lay down, I had two things running through my mind one was the boy next door with the blue cap and second was how I was going to face my fears to talk to him as he showed no signs of making a move. I was not going to let this one go.
Next, in our schedule was the entertaining bit. The chance to play in various games including; basketball, soccer, volleyball and other brain teaser activities such as chess and scrabble. At least I got the chance to learn new games. Every time I had, I sneaked a peak at the gorgeous looking gent hoping that he would look at me and give some kind of a sign. As much as sh did not respond the eye to eye conversation, I felt embarrassed. Both for being a coward and instigating unknown attention seeking strategies.
Finally I gained the courage to approach him. He shouted to an extent that it sounded like a scream. Everybody couldn’t hold their mouth from laughing. My embarrassment and shame grew ten times. Every decision that led to attending the trip turned into a regret. I did not know whether I was sad, embarrassed or just ashamed to have made a fool of myself.
At the end of the day, a trip expected to be fun and full of learning experiences ended being a complete disaster. A learning experience indeed it was- never to open my mouth to strangers no matter how attractive they appeared. It is better to live in regret than fear and shame. Our group made a song that we sang around the bonfire till it was time to sleep. We dispersed to our various rooms to catch some sleep, but I had learned a lesson that I would not forget. As I was sleeping that day, I would still hear the yelling voice directed towards me, and I would hear my friends teasing me I wouldn’t catch much sleep it was probably the worst trip I had ever gone to. It was the most boring camping trip of my life, but at least I learned a lesson, I learned to exercise patience, and since then I have grown to be a very patient person I handling issues.

Works Cited
Jersild, Arthur T., and Frances B. Holmes. "Methods of overcoming children's fears." The Journal of Psychology 1.1 (1935): 75-104.