|
|
"This one time, at science camp..." or, meandering self-absorbedness unsuccessfully disguised as adviceAug 18 '01 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line difrentisgood draws on her own experiences in an attempt to inform you, the consumer, what you should know about science camps and why. Near the end of my junior hear in high school, the summer of 2001 stretched before me, in my imagination representing endless showerless days where I would do nothing but read and watch television and surf the internet mindlessly. I envisioned my friends either spending their summer the same way, cocooned at home, afraid to venture out of the reach of an air conditioner, or off vacationing in exotic places like Europe or Disneyworld or whatever midwestern town the world's largest hairball is found in. I envisioned myself losing the ability to speak English correctly (even the Hicktown, Oklahoma, form of English) -- for days, the only words I might utter would be in response to a parent's "So what did you do all day, Angela?" to which question the answer is invariably, "Erghh..." I remembered the summer when I was twelve, when I wore the same clothes for an entire week (instead of the usual three days). I remembered, I envisioned, I shuddered, and I panicked. I began hoarding literature and pamphlets mailed to me about academic summer camps, mostly recruitment efforts by colleges which also don't mind making a little money in the process. "Hey, mom, can I borrow $4280 to spend six weeks at Harvard?" After the response that request got, I decided that it would be best to look for help where I'd found it before: the Oklahoma State Legislature's grants to form free summer academies intended to boost teenagers' interests in mathematics and the sciences. A background of my science camp experiences I first found out about these camps at age fifteen, before my sophomore year of high school. I applied to the Oklahoma Principals' Science Scholars Academy (OPSS, for short), was accepted, and went off to Oklahoma State University for three of the best weeks in my life up to that point. It was at OPSS that I first found out that I wanted to study science for the rest of my life. It was there that I first found out that I'm not even close to being the smartest person in the world, let alone the state of Oklahoma. It was there that I found out that I could get along just fine without my parents' constant control and supervision, or anyone else's, for that matter. It was there that I first encountered real racial diversity, saw that people could have been raised in completely opposite ways and hold completely different core beliefs, yet still like and respect one another, and saw that that was the way things should always be. All in all, not bad lessons to learn, and not a bad way to spend the summer. The next year, I applied for the Aerospace and Aviation Academy, also at OSU, and though I have no desire to be an astronaut, and commercial flying is pure torture for me unless I have my Dramamine, those were also a fantastic three weeks. I co-piloted a Cessna, body-surfed in the Gulf of Mexico, spent a few hours in class every day learning about gyroscopes and ailerons and whatnot, and made three inseparable friends for the short time we were together. All of these experiences were completely free to me, at the expense of the average taxpayer. It was a pretty good deal just for making good grades... Once again, this year I applied to a free summer camp at OSU -- this time, a four-week Astronomy and Physics Academy. Once again, I was accepted and felt comforted at a chance of relief from what I thought would be a monotonous summer. The problem was, my summer never got that boring. Why I wasn't happy at camp This year, for one thing, I had a job -- something to force me to get up off of my butt and out of the house almost every day. Also, I had my own car and a liberal amount of personal freedom, and friends with the same. I had places to go - even if it was just to the movies; people to see - even if it was just the same old gang at Sherrie's; and things to do - even if it was just building my music collection from The Beat Goes On's used CD racks. Unlike previous summers, I had a pretty enjoyable social life. In the middle of what was promising to be a crazy and busy summer, right when I was beginning to get close to a few new friends and staying up all night every Friday and Saturday and maybe starting a relationship with a guy named Brandon whom I'd liked for a long time, I was pulled up and transplanted a hundred miles from home, in front of a computer with no instant-messenging allowed and beside a telephone in a completely different area code. I tried to make the most of camp. I even enjoyed it much of the time. But I wasn't really happy. The first week started out with nineteen campers. (The twentieth, my old roommate from OPSS, was sick and couldn't make it. Lucky her.) By Friday, my roommate, Nkechi, had left for good. She hadn't been home more than a few days all summer, but her real reason for leaving, at least the one she told her fellow campers, was a professor's occasional B.O. To quote, "Somebody'd better tell that man, because his Secret's out!" Two down, eighteen to go. Another camper left during the first weekend off, and a fourth, my friend Smita, showed up only to collect her things. I myself had had a fantastic weekend at home, especially compared to the bland week that had just passed at camp. Though I was determined to give the Academy a decent try, I told Sherrie before I went back to camp on Sunday that unless something drastically changed, I expected to be back home by that Thursday. It's not that the Academy was bad, it just wasn't all that good. We had to attend interminable three-hour morning classes and an astronomy lecture every night. There was a telescope available, but it was small (8-inch) and we could only use it to observe certain things relevant to the twenty-page research report we would have to present on the final day. When Smita called the coordinator to say that she was leaving, she told him, "I think some of the campers here aren't having very much fun," to which he reportedly replied, "This isn't a summer camp; this is an academy. It's not supposed to be fun." I don't think many of the other campers - excuse me, academy-goers agreed with him. It's not that I'm against hard work, I'm just don't like hard work without purpose. Unlike my two previous camps, it seemed more like we were doing school work, busy work, instead of learning and experimenting with new things and ideas. To me, learning has always been fun, but maybe I just wasn't interested enough in astronomy to really enjoy what we were doing. Despite these downsides, I really liked most of the other campers and I especially enjoyed the college life and freedom and nearby library and pool. And although I felt unhappy and like I needed to go home, I am a horrible decision maker. I believe that what movie I decide to rent or whether I order french fries or onion rings with my hamburger will haunt me for the rest of my life, so I've developed sneaky little ways of getting others to make decisions for me. I ask advice until I find an argument I like. I put off a decision until the point no longer matters. I make lists and let the facts fight it out by themselves. So I made lists and asked advice and agonized over this silly little decision, and when I decided to go home, I agonized some more and wondered if I really wouldn't be happier back at camp, if I was being selfish and ungrateful to the nice people who set up the Academy, etc, etc... The first weekend back just made things more confused; I stayed up with all my friends and Brandon and I went for a walk at 2 a.m. and talked and held hands, but on Sunday my car broke down completely and I was stuck at home for most of the week. And, shiznit happens, long story, and though Brandon and I saw each other several times after that weekend, and e-mailed and talked on the telephone, that was about as far as the relationship got. He moved back to college a few weeks ago and that was pretty much that. After I got a new car (this one, unfortunately, paid for by me and not my parents), the rest of the summer was pretty busy and fun. I kept in touch, a little, with my fellow academy-goers. I heard of at least one more camper dropping out (fourteen left out of twenty, if you're counting) and that was pretty much that. So, to pretend this epinion has a point other than me just writing about my life: What you, the science camp consumer, can learn from my science camp experiences Science camps can be a lot of fun, especially if you don't have much else going on during the summer. You get to meet lots of different, interesting people, you get away from your parents for a while, and you learn something new. I can heartily recommend science camps, in general. To make sure you have a good experience, just find a camp that is over a subject that you're at least partially interested in, and check to see how intense the classes are. Try to find something that fits you, and don't overdo it. Don't worry too much, like I have, about "wasting" your summer, because that's what it's there for. ~~~~~~~~ If you live in Oklahoma and you feel like you'd be interested in attending one of these academies, here's a link: http://www.okhighered.org/student-center/mainsite/jrhigh-highscl/index.html ~~~~~~~ Note: this is a repost of an epinion from earlier today which six people read and rated, after which epinions knocked it back down to "draft" status, and I was unable to republish it until just now.  |
| Read all comments (5)|Write your own comment |
|
Ads by Google
|
