My Summer Romance

After hours of filling in application forms, interviews, police checks, criminal clearances, and a very lovely reference from the fantastic Nic, I found myself sitting in San Francisco airport, about 30 hours jetlagged, awaiting my fabulous summer to start. Of course, silently cursing at myself for giving up spending summer at home, given up TRYBE runs and camps, and most importantly Nasi Lemak and Char Kway Teow, to come to California to work in a camp where I knew no one, knew nothing about the work that was required of me, and most importantly, out of my comfort zone. But the usual TYRBE motto rings in my ear, so your resident high-I took a deep breath, told herself ‘You can do it, Linny!’, and flashed that high-I smile.

You know when you first heard them TRYBE volunteers screaming to you that they believe that you can do whatever you want to do, and achieve whatever you set out to achieve, you think ‘Boy, these people are nuts’, but in uncertain situations like these, all you need is to remember that once face that used to tell you so. For me, it was Jasmine’s face. The camp I worked at was called Camp Costanoan, a lovely place in the valleys of Cupertino, and it was a respite camp for adults and children with disabilities.

At this point I stop tying as I struggle to try to word the experience, I know nothing that I can ever write will do it justice. But, alas, I attempt.

At this amazing place, I found the courage to love like no other, to dance like no one’s watching, to sing like there’s no music left in the world, to draw and colour like the world’s faded away, to jump like you are able to touch the sky, to run like theirs fire beneath your heels, to laugh like the tooth cavity fillings are invisible, to have fun like there’s nothing else to have, to appreciate people as if they are the only human contact that I’ll ever get, to look like I’d just gotten out of bed, to roar like a tiger, to cry like a baby, and most importantly, to be me like there’s no tomorrow. I was reminded of the one thing that TRYBE had taught me – to be myself, for I am unique, and the best that I can ever be. All these while still getting paid! Woohoo!

It is easy to forget how to, in the real world, so to speak, in the world where we are judged by how well we do in school, how many friends we have, and dare I mention, how we look. Life in the real world is not easy, and we give ourselves that extra pressure of wanting to be at the top, to be the best at everything, and we forget one simple fact, we are best at being ourselves, and when we forget that, we stop being ourselves, and in that process, stop being the best.

Then we forget to laugh, forget to cry, forget to dance, forget to sing, forget to have fun, forget to appreciate, and the most tragic – we forget to love.

You can do it! TRYBE tells us. I believe in you! They enforce.

We go through a TRYBE run and we think, ‘Wow, that worked, huh! It must be some miraculous energy that they exude.’ Well, I hate to burst that bubble, but no it isn’t. It is simple though, by believing in us, they help us believe in us. It’s all in us, as I’ve found out, and of course, with TRYBE’s help, it all becomes swifter and smoother. My work in that summer camp was by no means an easy feat; it was pure hard work, emotionally, mentally and physically. But there is something comforting in waking up in the morning knowing that there’s a full and long day ahead of you, and you murmur to yourself, ‘Come on, you can do this!’ At the end of the day, you know that you can do this, and you are doing it, and you do it all for that one smile on a camper’s face, or that one parent who comes to you at the end of camp and says ‘Thank you, my son said he had the best time at camp.’ Or even the camper himself telling you ‘I will miss you’.

So I did it, I went to America, like I said I would, worked in a summer camp and in a blink of an eye, it’s all over. Sometimes I sit at my table back at York and wonder, if it ever did take place, just because it was almost magical. And then I go on to ponder, if I am actually allowed that much magic in my life, I mean, TRYBE, Camp Costanoan, York University, did I take up too much magic of the world? That old ‘Thumbs Up!’ t-shirt hangs on my wall, radiating its orange-ness, and when the sun shines onto the shirt (occasionally, because I DO live in England), the little room turns a lovely shade of orange, and then I realize, no, the magic is as simple as the reflection of the orange-ness, and as ample as the shining rays of the good ol’ sun.

As ample as the shining rays of the good ol’ sun.


Posted on behalf of Kuek Lin


More Photos of her trip here