Finding closure...

When I got back to Germany three years ago the first place I went within hours of landing was SoLa - the summer camp I have been involved in since I was 17. On my list of things to do before I leave for the States there was one important point: Go to SoLa. I just got back and now have one week left before I leave and somehow it seemed quite fitting to end my time here. A good way to bring closure. Say goodbye. Move on. Look back at a special "place" that played a large role in who I am today.
After three days of setting up and one week of teenagers I arrived back home in the usual fashion: Happy, tired, satisfied, dirty, with lots of mosquito bites, plenty of stories to tell... and a bag of dirty laundry. I find it amazing how quickly we form habits - for example, we build our own toilette facilities. We use big tanks (they can hold 1000 litres), build plattforms on top of them and then place boxes with toilette seats on top. We used to build little "cabins" with thick plastic sheets, but as the years progressed we now have wooden ones. The plastic ones made for interesting entertainment at night, when the kids thought it necessary to take a flashlight with them and place it on the floor - the resulting shadow show was quite fascinating. This year, our toilettes where in the woods and somebody set up flurescent lights. Actually, this caused the bathroom to be better lit at night than during the day! Most people returning from camp deal with two new bathroom habits: For one, people forget to flush (but quickly re-adapt) and secondly, if you feel the need to go during the night, SoLa-returners find themselves searching for warm cloths.
This year part of our camp was on a hill and I was one of the lucky inhabitants of a tent whose floor was at a slight slant. This did have positive results as well. For example, it made it easy to tell time at night. One of the girls sleeping in my tent would slide down. Around 2am her feet were next to my head, two hours later approximately at shoulder height and by the time it my moment had come to rise and shine I started feeling cramped between her and my bag. One morning she woke up almost entirely on my mat - apparently she shifted onto it after I left!
At the end of camp traditionally all the people helping out form a huge line and all the participants file past and say good-bye.
This year, as I shook over 300 hands and hugged countless people it felt as if was saying good-bye to my years of "coming of age": Growing up. Figuring out who I am. Finding my place. Not that I'm there yet. But I'm getting there - and maybe it's time to move on to the next stage of my life.