Feathering the Chicken Coop

You are only thirteen once, thankfully. It was a year I didn’t feel like I fit in anywhere, except, for one week at summer camp. For me they were memories I will never forget, it was the year I feathered the chicken coop.

My friends and I were trying to make the most of being at a camp where the cabins were outdated and you literally had to walk a mile for each meal. So, we did what any group of teenage boys would do, we began a feud with the cabin next door, 'the chicken coop'. It made for a week of relentless bantering between our cabins. Then my one friend decided to take it a step farther and devised a brilliant plot to 'feather' the chicken coop. We waited till no one was there and then went crazy hurling feathers from his down pillow. My friend and I thought we were so cool 'feathering' the ‘coop’ until, we were busted by their counselor. Fortunately, he went easy on us and only made us sweep the feathers under their bunks. We later learned the guys were furious, but never figured out who 'feathered' them. It became camp legend.

There were many things I learned during that week besides how to 'feather' a chicken coop. I met a guy named, Leon, who taught me a lifetime lesson. Leon was from the city and had a confidence I envied. He was out of his element with a bunch of crazy kids from the suburbs, yet he joined right in. He wasn't intimidated and I admired that. He was a great example of how different can be good especially when it comes to friends.

Then there was the night a bunch of us guys, with the promise of all you could eat pizza, took off for the cafeteria in the pouring rain. On our way there we had a blast jumping in mud puddles and getting drenched without a care in the world. We arrived totally soaked, but happy as clams until we realized there was not a slice of pizza to be found. We had been lied to. The only thing in this cafeteria was a bunch of hungry, miserable teenage boys. Sometimes life can be like that, you get your hopes up only to be dashed. Perhaps the best part of the experience is the journey.

Being thirteen can be like a maze of mirrors at a carnival. It can be so confusing, yet one right turn makes all the difference. In my mind, my summer camp experience made the whole year tolerable. Thirteen will always be the year I 'feathered' the chicken coop.

“Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity.” ~ Gilda Radner

Swavel