NBTSC and Me

It may or may not have come to your attention that I have not been blogging, checking my email, or doing anything at all much for the past week. I have a really really good reason for this, which I am going to explain to you now. I was at NBSTC, or Not Back To School Camp, a summer camp for un/homeschoolers. It is run by Grace Lewellyn, author of the Teenage Liberation Handbook, or TLH. It was some totally awesome fun, but no internet for the whole week. This concludes my apolegetic phase, and I'm moving right on in to the part where I talk your ears off or your eyes out about what, exactly, I did.

Let's see...hung out with more than half of the campers, learned the names of almost all of them, ate vegetarian food, served other people the same, swam in the creek, walked around in my bra and pants, went to bonding night, the trust circle, prom, the graduation ceremony, the intention circle, meetings every morning and every night, workshops, and unisex late night parties in the girls bathroom, made new friends, learned new things (for instance: chocolate is made by separating cocoa butter from cocoa mass and mixing them back together in a certain way with a few other ingredients), hugged everyone I could, slept in Forest Dell, got a hug button, got an oh, James button, pushed people's buttons, and talked, and talked, and talked.

You may be wondering what kind of camp I was at, where girls can wander around shirtless and let boys in their bathrooms and learn about chocolate and get mysterious buttons. Well, and unschooler camp. True, boys are not, technically, allowed in our bathroom, but the staff didn't mind when one of the boys came in and sat on the counter and talked with us. As for the shirtless thing, as long as the bra stays on, it's fine. After all, bras cover more skin than some bathing suits. Talk to me about hug buttons, or the intention circle, or Bean's chocolate workshop, or feeding about sixty-five people cornbread and chili in under an hour, or about the totally awesome costumes Bitty and Arne wore to prom. Ask about my recent promotion, or Advisee groups and what the hell was up with the Nathen pose, or why Madelyn and I are planning to build a Tupperware castle next year. Ask about the mosh pit at seven in the morning that woke me up, or Grace belly-dancing in one of the Talent Shows. Ask about Dave Thomas's sandwich song, or why he's called the Dish Queen, or the time he called himself Bitty and got thrown in the creek as a sacrifice.

Ask about camp, and you'll hear so many stories of fun, and learning, and growth, and healing, and inside jokes, and new talents, and old friends, you'll really wish that you had been there with me, just to experience that.

But here's the best part; there's always next year. If you're under eighteen, come and be a camper and you'll have the most joyful time of your young life. If you're over eighteen, don't sweat it. Come be a staffer - they have almost as much fun as we do. But even if you can't make it, we're always sending our best wishes to you, and hoping you get at least a little piece of the energy and experiences we get every single year.

For more information, or to sign yourself up, go to the website and look around. (If that link doesn't work, sorry. I'm afraid I've been having recent difficulties getting to the NBTSC website. Google it.)