• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • CR Radio
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe

Find the fun

May 16, 2019
By Robyn Barberry
Filed Under: Blog, Unconditional

In this post, I’d like to share a guest commentary from one of my sixth-grade students, 12-year-old Alaina Ramirez.  She talks about a recent visit to the NorthBay Adventure Camp.Every year, St. Joan of Arc sixth grade students take a week-long overnight trip to North Bay to learn about nature, practice team building exercises and experience a little independence from their parents. This year, it was my turn. I’m going to be honest, NorthBay was an experience I will never forget, but like everything, it had its pros and cons. For the most part, I had fun, but there were more than a few times I didn’t.

This is a little embarrassing, but I missed the boys — a lot. I know that it sounds dumb, and I was even afraid to write about this. The first day I was upset because the first thing they did was separate me and my male friends. I thought it would pretty much ruin my entire week, but after I adjusted to being surrounded by girls, I started to have a little bit of fun.

I guess you could say I’m kind of a tomboy. Some of the girls in my cabin liked doing their makeup in the morning. I have nothing against doing makeup. It’s just not my thing. To me, makeup is a mask. It’s fake. Luckily, the girls who did makeup didn’t push me or anyone else to do it. That’s what I like about my friends. I guess you could say I felt out of place. Although the negative thoughts were getting to my head, I tried to forget about them, and enjoy my time with my friends.

On Thursday, at lunch time, everything fell apart. Let me give you some details so this can make sense. At NorthBay, you line up outside in three rows for the girls and three rows for the boys. Then you have to be quiet so that your line can go in. Once you get inside, your food is waiting for you, but you can’t eat it until everyone is inside. After everyone is inside, we say prayer.

My friends and I were at our table, bored, so one girl said, “Let’s tell each other  who our crushes are!”

My face felt very warm. I didn’t want to. Then my friend looked at me with an aggravated face. She said, “Hey, you didn’t tell me who your crush was at the ice rink!”

I froze. I didn’t know what to say. Only bits of words came out of my mouth. I desperately wanted to be sitting at the boys’ table, where they were probably talking about video games.

After lunch, we went back to our cabin. I started to feel really sick. As soon as we got back to the cabin, I lay down in my bunk feeling as tired as ever. To our surprise, ants had gotten into one of the girl’s and the counselor’s bunks. It was a disaster. People were getting angry, and started blaming each other. While this was happening, my friend came over to me and said, “Are you feeling okay?” I answered, “No.” She put her hand on my forehead. When she took her hand off, she had a shocked look on her face. She said, “Oh my gosh, you’re burning!” Our counselor came over to where we were and felt my forehead. She then took me to the Wellness Center. That’s when my week ended.

As I said in the beginning, everything has its pros and cons. Aside from my frustrations with being separated from my usual friends, I had some fun with the girls, too. My favorite parts were playing beach volleyball, going on the zipline, and going on the rope course. I was especially disappointed that I didn’t get to go on the giant swing. To be honest, I was really sad when I had to go home.

The most important thing I learned from this experience was not to focus on the negative all the time. Focusing on the negative blocked out the good times I should have been having with my newfound friends. By the time I started enjoying myself, it was time to go. If I had adapted to the changes sooner, I would have made more positive use of my time and would not have left regretting the happy memories I could have made with people I never would have talked to otherwise. From now on, I will try to look for the positive things that are happening around me before it’s too late.

 

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Robyn Barberry

Robyn Barberry is married to her high school sweetheart, Patrick. They are raising four imaginative and adventurous children, one of whom has autism.

Robyn teaches English at Archbishop Curley High School in Baltimore and is a former art and language arts teacher at St. Joan of Arc in Aberdeen, where she worships with her family.

Robyn earned an MFA in creative nonfiction from Goucher College in 2011 and she has been blogging for the Catholic Review since 2012. If she could have dinner with any living person, it would be Pope Francis.

View all posts from this author

Recent Commentary

A personal flyswatter and other gifts, hummus, and a new room (7 Quick Takes)

A Faith Lesson After a Power Outage

Chocolate birthday cake with 4 candles

My birthday festivities, a painting project, and spaghetti pizza for lunch (7 Quick Takes)

Just by showing up

Where is God on your family’s calendar?

Recent Local News

Young adults from Archdiocese of Baltimore invited to experience local and international World Youth Day events

Archdiocese of Baltimore welcomes new school leaders

RADIO INTERVIEW: Camp St. Vincent

Archbishop Lori decries Biden executive order, ‘continued promotion of abortion’

Archbishop Lori urges Congress to ‘seize hopeful moment,’ vote to protect life, common good

Catholic Review Radio

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Young adults from Archdiocese of Baltimore invited to experience local and international World Youth Day events
  • Overturning of Roe provides ‘chance to win fight for life,’ says top Knight
  • Desire for eternal youth is ‘delusional,’ pope says
  • Archdiocese of Baltimore welcomes new school leaders
  • Father Carl Kabat, a former Baltimore resident, spent 17 years in prison for anti-nuclear protests
  • Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, pope tells young people
  • 5th Circuit urged to keep injunction in place on HHS transgender mandate
  • MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Predator’ prequel hunts for ‘Prey’
  • Cardinal Tomko, oldest member of College of Cardinals, dies at 98

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2022 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED