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Personal Narrative: My Summer Volunteering At Camp Echoing Hills

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Imagine a world where sleeping five hours every night, daily freak of nature accidents, feet feeling as if they could fall off from walking on them all day, and even getting unknown bodily fluids splattered all over you, defined the norm. That was my world this summer. I had the privilege of spending two months of my summer volunteering at Camp Echoing Hills, a camp in Ohio for individuals of all ages with disabilities. Reflecting back, it seems as if I experienced and learned more in these two months than in my prior seventeen years of life all together. Each week brought forth new struggles, some I was aware of, and others I had no idea existed; however, despite the obstacles I faced, the blessings I received after each week consumed me. I met hundreds of new faces this summer, some blurry, and some clear, yet one young girl named Alondra will never cease to exist …show more content…

I looked forward to this week of camp all summer, and it had finally arrived. The moment I heard the first overwhelmingly, excited squeal of a camper running through the welcoming gauntlet, I knew this was going to be an incredible week. Once all the campers arrived, we followed the normal routine and brought them down to get acquainted with the cabin and with one another. I was in the middle of running back and forth between two giddy girls, when one of the camp supervisors asked to pull me aside for a moment. A thousand thoughts rushed to my head as I made my way over to the supervisor, sure that I was seconds away from getting yelled at. Soon enough, she spoke. She asked one simple question: if I would be willing to work in a different cabin with a camper named Alondra, who happened to be a wanderer. A wanderer is someone who is always up and moving and is often unable to stay situated in one spot for a long period of time. Unknowing of what I was getting myself into at the time and too in shock to say no, I

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