Have you ever been to camp Firwood? No? I didn’t think so. Its in Bellingham, Washington. If you don’t know where that is its very far away. 5 hours drive max. It’s the place that sounds boring. But it’s kid heaven. Yeah, you would think that it has those kiddy play structures and boring stuff like that. Firwood, they have paintball, a water blob, and other stuff like that. They even let you sign up for classes. I signed up for Rambo smorg, Hardcore smorg, and paintball.
Rambo smorg is the kind of things were you climb up semi-vertical hills covered in blackberry’s and stinging nettle. Our counselors made us climb up and find stuff while they had sticks and threw them at us. So we got to the top and threw them back. I accidentally hit a kid in the face and he almost fell all the way back down the hill. I will never sign up for anything that has the name Rambo in it. Just because I don’t want gashes and nettle stings all over my body.
Then after the first day there was this really fun night game where your cabin team had to find glow sticks and turn them in to a checkpoint. Once again nettle stings. This one kid had this huge spider crawl all over his back before somebody smacked it. Te goal was to find orange glow sticks and turn them into a barn checkpoint for double points. But we found mostly red ones. We came in 5th. But this one kid got lost and you can’t turn anything in till everybody from your cabin is with your counselor.


Hardcore smorg is where you do hardcore things. Like barf after having a spoonful of 357 hot sauce. Or run through a forest whole being shot at with paintball guns. Or jump from a ladder from 20 feet above the water. Yep, it’s not exactly “Fun” but it’s just for kicks. My favorite was playing tackle football in a mud pit then jumping into the lake the camp is next to. The lake is actually pretty warm. It rained so the mud fight was y message is, don’t sign up for this class, that is, only if you’re hardcore.
Then there’s the time I went air heading. For those of you that don’t know what that is its being dragged on an inner tube behind a boat. So me, this kid named Cameron young and my counselor, Mamacita, went out for a mellow ride. Well, that’s what Mamacita said. So the ride started out mellow. Bt he boat driver took a sudden turn and sent me skipping across the water. The guy asked me if I was okay and I gave him the thumbs up. Sign language 1 on 1. Thumbs up means speed up. So off we go. Much faster this time. The tube hit the wake and we flew into the air. Mamacita kicked me and the face and I let go. I was flying into the air when I realized there was this thing called gravity that pulls you back down. And since hitting water is like hitting cement, well, the rest is history.
So for free time that day I decided to take a little nap. But I missed bible study and dinner so I was pretty mad. And that night there was this competition for these teams we had. But it was fun and I forgot what I was mad about. Then this fat kid named Tommy just had to pick a fight and started to cry. And he cried later when he had to do real push-ups. And then he cried when he missed his parents. Okay, my message to all of the kids reading this, don’t go to away camps if you need to be with you’re family. The kids in your cabin will tie you to a post and leave you there for hours.

When the day is over and there’s nothing to do everybody goes and listens to the counselors sing and tell stories. Somebody always does a skit or play. Then they talk about god and Jesus. I forgot to tell you it’s a christen camp. Then you pray to god for a little bit and you can make pray requests. I asked god for better math grades.
The worst part of camp comes when you have to leave. After you’ve made so many new friends and tried so many new things. And the 5 hour drive home. And leaving all of the cute girls that giggle whenever you walk by. Its not that fun. But then you think about it. Next year. What’s going to be new, who will come back, what will happen next time at camp Firwood.