RYLA Wrap-up

Well, by now i'm sure it hasn't taken you too long to figure out that I've given up blogging about RYLA!!! I can't be bothered with it anymore but i can't exactly just leave it hanging like it was i suppose. So i'll finish up (a month later).

I guess i just wanted to say that i met alot of really great people at that camp. People that i KNOW i'm going to be friends with for the rest of my life. Good quality people. I learnt things about reactions and the different responses we have to things. I learnt not to be so judgemental. i learnt so many things and became a slightly more mature person (don't get worried, not too mature).

This weekend is ten pin bowling and so i'll get to catch up with them all once again, i'm really excited about it.

I just want to tell you a bit about the people that i met.

James
He is great. I think he is my bruda from another muda!! We just clicked!!! I was standing behind him a line at camp one day and he turned to me and asked if he knew me from somewhere, i had to say no. But we established that we both loved acting and being drama queens and from that day on we just became the greatest of chums. One person even asked me whether we'd known each other before camp and we had to admit that we didn't know eachother from a bar of soap. I will say though, James teases me too much!!! James, if you're reading this i'm sorry but i don't know what trenching is and the wig thing....well, we're just not going to go there - IT'S NOT FUNNY !!! A word of warning as well, he cheats when you play card games with him and he thinks it's funny, well it's not!

Tim
Tim is the bomb, he thinks all my jokes are funny and he loves how crazy i am. He has the most amazing smile from ear to ear and his laugh is just contagious!!! Many a crazy hilarity was shared with Tim. My first encounter with Tim was beating him in 500. That was great. So we always set out to beat each other in a game of 500 now (which we have to do sometime soon!). One thing that was funny inparticular was when i reached for the jug of water and knocked over a glass and it went all over him haha...it's making me chuckle even thinking about it. It may not seem funny to you but at the time, goshhh, it was hilarious. And ladies, if you want a dancing partner, Tim is the man, he goes off!!! A note for Tim, 8 of hearts is not as funny as you think it is!!! So stoppp laughing at me or i'll find someone to stalk you and you know who i'm thinking of!!!!!!!

Andrew
Aw, now andrew was a darl, such a heartbreaker really! His smile is also ear to ear and it's really quite disappointing when he's not smiling because when he smiles, you just feel like you're doing something right!!! He's a gun when it comes to playing 500!!! It's nothing personal but i just don't want to be his partner in 500 ever again. He's too good and he's a strategy player which isn't good when you play randomly like me!!! So sorry Andrew but you and Tim will have to play together because, i have to beat Tim and i refuse to play with you anymore....hahaha, were you my partner in 8 of hearts? I'm so sorry!!!! Anyway, he's just a fantastic person reallly!!!

Beth
Beth is a sweet heart!!! She is an art teacher and a quite good photographer. She told us a story about her students and how she went out of her way to make the learning process for them and i just thought that was incredible. I said that i wished i'd had teachers like that at school who really wanted to see me learn as much as i possibly could. She genuinely cares for people and does what she can for others and i liked that about her - she's a really great person!!!

Gel (short for Geraldine)
GOSHHHHHH, this chick is most awesome!!!! i loved her to death and a half. You can have the most awesome conversations with her and she has some really great stuff to say. One night we stayed up chatting til like 3 or 4am and it was just cool. She's also a most caring person (actually there were alot of caring people at RYLA) and she really believed in things i could do, along with so many other people! Why can't we have these people around us all the time?! She spoke about some really personal things at the speech night and it was something i really admired her for, having the guts to speak about stuff that is close to her heart and not worrying what others people think of her. Wow, yea, a most awesome friend!

Liz S
The last two chicks, liz and gel were in my room and Liz was cool. She had such a soothing, gentleness about her. She wasn't ever stressed out and was cool, calm and collected! The greatest thing about liz was that she came from near a town i used to live in and so we were both on the same wave length about certain classes of people in society. She understood a part of my life that i'd come through. It was so good to talk to someone who was familiar with a place i once called home for 6 years. That was truly wicked! She also was to be a miss showgirl in a local show - wow, i knew a miss showgirl. She was really pretty too. I was so lucky to make friends with all the pretty people. Actually come to think of it, i was probly the only ugly one at the camp - woah, i really am lucky!!! But anyway, liz was the bomb, she has a cool laugh!!

Sali
Naww, sali is beautiful. She is just the bestest. Her and james would have to have been my most favourite people at camp (and tim). They both loved drama/acting and sali just has a heart of gold and the most warm smile ever!!! Note to Sali and james, i don't play tarot card games, they're evil!!! Something that caught me off-guard about sali was that she was an important person and i didn't even know until the end of camp. She's organising the whole RYLA Ball and that flipped me out - she's a VIP, yet she took the form of an ordinary camper. That weirded me out fully! But goshhh she is sooooo nice!! I miss her and james, they're good company!

Alison M
Alison asked alot about stuff i believed in and it was a great opportunity for me to be able to share with her my beliefs on God, on dying, on heaven and hell and just about stuff like that. She's also a great listener and she laughs at my lamo jokes. So i warmed to her instantly tehehe....but Kylie and i found out that she comes from where we come from. So we live close by. She's actually the one organising this whole ten pin bowling thing, gosh, it's gonna be so much fun!!!

So as you can see i made some great friends. Of course, there were a million other nice people but i don't think any of them stole my heart as much as these people did.

Sorry you didn't get a full account of my RYLA week but just know that it was an awesome week and i went away from that camp really honestly sad to have to go back to real life, outside of the support network and the constant encouragement that people gave you making you believe you could do anything. It was honestly a place like no other, where people genuinely cared for each other and helped each other get to their full potential without making that person feel uncomfortable or laughed at.

Oh RYLA i miss you so. If anyone ever has the chance to go, don't pass up the opportunity because you think it's geeky, it's really quite life changing!!!

Tink xoxo

PS: Tomorrow night, Tuesday 21st, our club has asked each of us that they sponsored to finally speak about what we learnt and got out of RYLA. Scary - i hate public speaking!!!