It was fun and fun is good

I had a window seat and the pilot flew low enough that I was able to enjoy some great scenery on the flight back home. I saw the Virginia, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin countryside and also enjoyed being ontop of Lake Erie and Lake Michigan.

We did not completely finish our newspaper on Friday night, simply because we ran out of time. Even being allowed to work an extra hour did not fill the blank spaces on two of the pages. But the awards ceremony actually favored our colony (or small group, which consisted of five boys) by giving us the following prizes:

1. Highest Total of Points earned during the week by having ultra-clean rooms, always getting to meals on time, and winning many of the games--Rhode Island Colony

2. Second Best Skit which mimicked the personalities of Nathan & Lisa, two of the funnest counselors ever--Rhode Island Colony

3. The Roger Sherman Award for Servitude and Humility shown to other campers throughout the week--Jonathan Arena, Rhode Island Colony

4. The Thomas Jefferson Award for Creativity in Writing--Joseph Clay, Rhode Island Colony

5. Best Feature Story for an interview with Gene Edward Veith--Jonathan Arena of The Rhode Island Rambler

6. Best Overall Newspaper because of the clean layout, stylish design, sound articles, and opinion page consisting of an editorial (by Seth D.), news cartoon, and letter to the editor--THE RHODE ISLAND RAMBLER

I was extremely surprised that we received such a large amount of awards. I must say that the other colonies did a great job on their papers as well; for instance, the ladies who won for best news story and best editorial definitely deserved it, as did the other students who got Jefferson-type awards. And the skit that placed in front of ours was obviously superior-a very humorous (and accurate!) representation of Lisa's character.

Nevertheless, we walked off the stage with certificates, Patrick Henry pennants, and a party-in-a-bag that made me appreciate the fun week I had and the new friends I made. While I still don't know exactly what career I will end up in-or what college I will go to-I can say with certainty that I'm glad I went to Journalism Camp.