I was thinking I could show him one of the games I am building. I say, “Hey, James, why don’t we go to our room and then we can get onto my computer?”
He says, “Cool, let’s do that.” So we walk into James’s and my room. Each room also has two chairs in it. James sits in one of the chairs and I take the other chair.
James says, “Well, my name is James Jones and I am from Alabama. I have two brothers and my hobby is playing football. I am getting ready to play junior varsity football this year since I will be going into the 9th Grade. I like to play quarterback along with receiver. My junior high school football team that I was on went undefeated this past year and we are all going to 9th Grade and will be trying out for the same team and we should all make it. That means we should have a very good junior varsity team this year. I can’t wait. Football is all I think about. So that is about it for me.”
I say, “Well, I like to watch football, but I could never play it. I am known as an armchair quarterback, or coach. I always say what plays they should be doing, but of course it is easy to say what should be done, but I could never imagine what it would really be like to play. Some guys from our church play football, like Jake, and he is really good at it, and then there is Jimmy Stewart, who you will meet, and he plays and is pretty good also. I don’t really care for Jimmy because he is always doing something to me. He is kind of like a bully, but not in a big, harmful way. I try to stay away from him. He calls me a nerd all the time and he sometimes knocks my books out of my hands, or one time at school he poured ice-cold water all over me just because he wanted to. Another time I was riding my bicycle home and he came really close to me like he was going to run me over and I had to take my bike off the road and then I ended up crashing down the side of a hill. I was alright, just a little bruised, and my pride was hurt.”
James says, “Well, we will not let him do anything to you while we are here at camp.”
I say, “Thanks but you will not be able to stop him. He will find a way to aggravate me one way or another. Anyway, my name is Hollis McCalister and I am from Florida. I have two older sisters. One is five years older than me and her name is Irene, and my other sister Elizabeth is eight years older than me. I live in a singlewide trailer in a trailer park. It’s nice: it has a screened-in deck/porch in the front and just a deck on the back of it. My mom Thelma is a cook and sometimes works two jobs, and my dad drives a truck. My hobby is building video games and of course one day I would like to build big video games. I build like small ones now. I just haven’t come up with a good one yet. This is why I wanted you to come in here so I could show you a couple of the games I built. I built a small football one and would love to be able to afford a better computer system with lot of graphics to build a real-looking football player. So that’s cool. I can ask you some questions about football players so I can build a player closer to the real thing. What do you think? Is it okay while we are here that I ask you some football questions?”
James says, “No, that’s great as long as you give mention to me on your video game for helping you.”
I say, “That’s a deal. Now I just have to freak out about going and talking in front of everyone. I am just going to say who you are and then tell them you play football and your football team went undefeated this past year.”
James says, “Sounds great, and don’t worry about it. If you start getting real nervous, I will step in and start telling them also.”
I say, “Thanks, James, I guess we should go back out into the living room now. I hear Jake out there talking to a couple of people.” James and I pick up our notecards that we have been writing our notes on about one another so that we would not forget what we are going to say. When we walk back into the living room area, Jake and a few others are sitting there.
Jake says, “Hey, did you get some good information on each other? Of course you didn’t need to get much information since this is just a meet-and-greet time. We are not going to be saying much since we don’t have a long time to be up there. We have so many campers this year. So basically we will be going through it pretty fast. Is that better, Hollis? You don’t have to worry about it.”
I say, “I just want to get this over with and the sooner we do, the better. I do not even remember doing this last year.”
Jake says, “That’s because we did it different. Preacher Miller talked for everyone: Preacher Miller just added this for us to do this year.”
I say, “It figures that my last time coming that I would have to get up in front of a room full of people and speak. I just want to get this over.”
Jake says, “Dude, stop worrying about it: we all have to do this and you are going to worry yourself sick about it. Just suck it up and do it.” Everyone else comes into the room. Jake says, “Okay, since we are all here we can get ready and go over to the lunchroom.” We all get up from our seats and then pick up our notecards - those of us who have notecards. Not sure why I have a notecard since I am going to be pretty fast when I get up there and talk. I will most likely just leave them in my pocket. Jake opens the door for us and we all follow out the door and go down the steps and start walking outside toward the lunchroom. Of course I am getting really nervous as we walk closer to the lunchroom. Jake says, “Hollis, how are you doing?”
I say, “I am getting sicker and sicker in my stomach the closer we get to the lunchroom.”
Jake says, “It will all be over soon, my friend, I promise you. Camp is not to stress you out, it’s supposed to be for fun and meeting new people and making memories: fun memories, not bad memories.”
I say, “I know, I know. You sound like my mom saying
that.”
Jake says, “Sorry, I just want you to relax and have fun.” We approach the lunchroom and Jake opens the door for us. We all walk through the front door and head into the lunchroom.
Jake says, “Let’s sit up in the front tables so we can go first and get done first.”
I am thinking now we are talking, let’s get them done and over as fast as we can. Maybe Jake will pick me to go first and then I will be done and can relax the rest of the time. We all sit down around our two tables and then other groups start walking in and filling in all the tables.
Preacher Miller walks in and tells us, “Okay, as you can see it is buffet-style, so please get up and form a line at either of the two buffets. We will get started later after we get settled in with our food.” We all then get up and walk towards one of the buffet lines. We have choices of Italian or Mexican food tonight. I think I will go with spaghetti and pesto, and oh, they have ground turkey so I will put that on it. I go down the line and I dish out my food and then walk back to our table and sit down and start eating.
We are all sitting down now eating and Preacher Miller walks up onto the stage and goes to the microphone, which is located in the middle of the stage. The stage is set up with different types of props on it and different colored lighting. Preacher Miller says, “Okay, guys, in a few minutes we are going to start calling up each cabin one by one and you will come up onto the stage and start introducing each other. Don’t forget to tell everyone a couple of things about the other cabin mate that you interviewed. This way we all get to know each other.”
Oh my gosh, I am getting so nervous I am not even sure I can eat: I am afraid I am going to throw up. I hate talking in front of people and now I have to get up onstage and talk in front of a lot of people. I hate this part of camp. Why couldn’t we have just typed up something about each other and then passed it around to each other? But no, we have to get up in front of everyone and read it out loud. There are probably 200 people here including counselors and staff people. I am starting to sweat and
I feel like I am getting sick. I have to stop thinking about this. I am going to pass out if I do not stop thinking about it. I have to talk about James Jones from Alabama. I have asked him a few questions so I know what I need to say. That’s not the problem, it’s standing up in front of everyone that’s th
e problem. We sit there and wait - well, some people are still eating including Preacher Miller. I see Jake get up and walk over to Preacher Miller’s table. I see Jake whisper something in Preacher Miller’s ear for a few seconds. I then see Preacher Miller look over at our table, and see him moving his head up and down and saying something to Jake.
Then Jake walks back over to our table. I say, “Jake, what did you just say to Preacher Miller? I saw you speaking with him and then him look over here at our table and start nodding his head.”
Jake says, “I told him that we would like to go first and that we had someone at our table who was really nervous about this and just wants to get it done. He told me that we could go first and that he understands completely and for me to assure that person that it will be okay and not to worry about it.”
I say, “Again, it’s easier said than done when you are a person who is shy. You get nervous and you get sick from being so nervous. Even if it’s nothing you still worry anyway.”
Preacher Miller finally gets up and walks across the room and up the few stairs onto the stage. He then walks across to the microphone. Preacher Miller says, “I have decided to change it up a little bit. Instead of coming up onto the stage, you can just stand up next to your seat and introduce one of your roommates. We are going to go with the first table here. We are also going to start with Hollis McCalister.”
I am at first freaking out, but then I am very happy to get to go first and get it over with, and I am really happy that we get to just stand by our seats and not have to go up on the stage. Then I start thinking: Jake did tell him that I was the person who is shy and getting sick in my stomach from worrying so much about having to speak in front of everyone.
Preacher Miller says jokingly, “Today, Mr McCalister, today.” (Everyone in the room laughs.) “I am just kidding.” I look around the room and am thinking ‘Oh crap’. I stand up from sitting in my chair and lean over the table to use my arm and my hand as a crutch to hold me up. I am shaking and hoping the words that I am about to say are going to first come out of my mouth, and then once they come out of my mouth that they are going to come out right. I say, “My name is Hollis McCalister” -and at that time a voice shouts, “Nerd,” and it is Jimmy Stewart and a few people laugh out loud. “The person I am going to introduce is James Jones and he is from Alabama. His hobby is playing football and he is very good at it. His junior high football team went undefeated, and his whole team will be moving up to junior varsity and should be undefeated again. He loves football. That’s it.”
I was thinking ‘Alright, I am done’. About that time James stands up and says, “My cabin mate is Hollis McCalister and he actually loves football: he has never played it, but loves watching it. He also loves making video games on his computer, so does that mean he is a nerd as someone yelled out? No it doesn’t, it just means he has a passion for computers and producing video games. He is a great guy.”
At that time James sits down and I lean over and say, “Thank you very much, that was a nice thing to say.” He says, “It’s true, dude, it’s true.” We then sit there and we all listen to each other introduce one another. I just feel so relieved and feel like a load has been lifted off my shoulders.
Once we have listened to everyone, Preacher Miller gets up from his seat and then walks up to the stage and over to the microphone. He then says, “Thank you, everyone. Now you see that wasn’t bad at all.”
We all get to know each other just a little bit. We also get to hear that several of us are from all over the United States. Everyone claps their hands and then finishes eating. After that we all get up from the table and start to walk towards the doors and then we hear Preacher Miller yell out, “Counselors, don’t forget to take the agendas for the week with you so you can go over them with your teams.” I see Jake go over to the table and get the agendas off the table. We then walk out the doors and off the porch and outside. We start walking back towards our cabins. It is a pitch-dark night. We can hear all different kinds of night noises. We then hear like these howling noises and we all take off, running for the cabin. I am sure it was some kind of dog, but since we are not sure, we run. I have heard that there were coyotes in this area and someone said wolves, but wolves in this area, I am not sure about that. All I know is that we all are scared and run as fast as we can to get back to the cabin. Well, I can only run so fast, since I still have a sore knee. Those aspirin my mom gave me last night helped a lot. Once we get to the cabin we have to wait on the porch for Jake to get there, since he had the key to get into the cabin. We are wondering what is taking him so long. Since we are spooked we want to get into the cabin where it is safe. We hear something coming through the dark and it sounds like it is getting closer and we are hoping it is Jake and then we hear a voice say, “Hey, why did you guys take off running and leave me?” It is Jake who says that.
I say, “Well, we heard some kind of howling-type noises and we all took off running. It also doesn’t help that we are in the furthest cabin away. We are way out here all alone and it is pitch-black and we can’t see anything, so it is a little spooky out here.” He just laughs at us and says, “Chickens, oh and by the way I have the agenda for every day and it shows what we will be doing. I will put it up on the bulletin board. I will tell you that tomorrow we will be doing archery, so get some rest.” I am thinking, ‘Oh no, not archery.’ The last time I participated in archery I shot the arrow completely over the target and it hit our bus tire and flattened it. Also the band on the bow slapped my wrist and bruised it all up. I like it, but I am not good at all with it. Should be interesting. We all then get up from sitting in the living room and go to our rooms so we can get ready for bed. James and I are getting ready for bed and he says, “Should be fun doing archery. I haven’t done it in a while, but from what I remember it was pretty fun. We can make it competitive.” “Sounds fun, I guess. I really stink at it and I am not sure why they think we even need to learn this. Do they think we can use this in the future? I think if we have to do functions then they should have things on the agenda that will help us in the future.” “Like what kinds of things should they teach us?” James asks.
“Things that can help us with our future, like things we should know about going into high school. How do we deal with bullies? How do we balance school and school activities, and if we take part-time jobs. Now that’s what they should be doing, not teaching us archery.”
James says, “I understand that, but as you know that’s normally not what summer camp is all about. It’s about outdoors stuff and making lifelong friends.”
“I understand that, but I would still like to learn stuff other than outdoors stuff that I am never going to use. I guess we better get to sleep so we can get up in the morning and be ready for our busy archery day.”
* * *
CHAPTER 6: THE AGENDA
* * *
“W ake up, everyone. It’s time to get ready so we can go get some breakfast and then start doing some archery. I have posted the agenda for the week and it’s on the bulletin board,” Jake says.
“You know, James, I think Jake is a real nice person, but man, I hate him waking us all up before 7:30 am. I am ready to throw something at him.”
“I understand what you are saying,” James replies. We get up from our beds and start getting ready. It’s great that these rooms are set up for two people. They have two desks, two dressers, and two closets. It helps us to not be in each other’s space. Jake yells out, ‘We will be leaving in 30 minutes.”
I tell James, “I have to take a quick shower.” I head to the bathroom, which has a few showers and toilets and sinks inside it. I am thinking today is going to stink. As I am taking a shower I happen to look up to the top part of the shower and see a huge spider. I let out a huge yell. Next thing I know everyone is running into the bathroom. “What’s wrong? Are you alright?” Jake yells into the shower area.
“Yes, there is a huge spider in here on the wall. I hate spiders.” “Dude, t
hat’s it? We thought something was really wrong with you. Don’t yell out like you’re being killed again.”
“I am sorry, I told you I don’t like spiders. It’s huge and hairy-looking. You better hope it doesn’t jump on me, or I will pass out in here and you guys are going to have to take me out of here.” I hear them all walk out of the bathroom. I hurry up and get out of the shower and keep my eye on that spider the whole time. I dry off, put my clothes on, and then hurry out of the bathroom and into my bedroom. “Dude, why in the heck did you run in here?” James asks.
“Because there is a huge spider in the bathroom and it looks really hairy. I hate spiders, they creep me out,” I reply. We gather our backpacks and walk into the living room area to wait on everyone else. Everyone enters the living room. Jake walks in and says, “Okay, let’s head over to eat breakfast and then we will get the day underway. Shooting some archery is going to be fun. This year, Hollis, we moved everything out of your way so you can’t miss and hit anything else.”
“Funny,” I say. Everyone laughs out loud.
We walk to the food hall and we all go into the building, and as usual we are the first group to arrive, and then James walks us all to a table right close to the stage area. Oh boy, the food smells great and I am hungry and ready to eat. We have to wait for everyone to arrive before we can eat. More groups start showing up and finding themselves tables. Finally the room has filled up with all the groups. I can hear Jimmy Stewart’s big mouth and of course they have to sit right next to us. I hope he does not throw food at me again like he always does. Just hearing his voice makes my skin crawl. He rates up there with spiders in my life. He creeps me out and really drives me crazy.
HOLLIS MCCALISTER SUMMER CAMP Page 3
