Assignment #1: Personal Prompts to White's Once More to the Lake

Page 469: Journal Prompt #1. Describe a place that has special meaning to you. Why is it special?

     The digital clock on the dashboard approached noon just as our van turned off the main road. My mother sung along to the CD player, my two siblings talked amongst themselves about the coming two weeks, while I started fidgeting. We were almost to the legendary Boy Scouts of America Camp Royaneh, to everyone else this was a standard summer, but to me this was an adventure. Gregory Jr, my oldest sibling would be attending as a Webelo, my parents cooking, and my sister Carrie and me would be getting in the way.

     Trees lined the last road to Camp Royaneh, rolling down my window I breathed in the fresh scent of oak and horses. Eventually, the trees break and the Dining Hall and Office comes into view, mom slows down to let a car by making me more impatient. Already, I want to call my father to tell him of the ride up here and my first impressions of camp, but he is working. After parking and unpacking our belongings, we say goodbye to Jr. so he can find his campsite and the three of us head to the kitchen.

    Staring up at the steel kitchen appliances, I felt tiny, unimportant. Barely five years old I was expected to read and color all day long. However, as my mom started preparing the welcoming feast for the staff with her kitchen staff I slyly strolled to her side. Her hazel eyes stared into mine before smiling and moving and a chair to the stove so I could stir the pots. I spent the next two weeks in the kitchen from dawn to past dusk helping my mother in the kitchen. All the kitchen staff members learned to walk around me or let me assist them in their chores, most preferring the latter.

     So while Jr. attending camp and Carrie ran around playing, I stayed inside the kitchen, eagerly learning from my mother. Those two weeks flew by much too quickly for little me. Sadly, in such a short time the van was leaving the forest rode behind itself with me staring back at camp.

     Twelve months later, however, my family was making the drive up to Camp Royaneh again this time my father accompanied us. The whole ride there, there was a little girl in the back of the van fidgeting eager to begin her two weeks of fun.

     Camp Royaneh is special to me, even now thirteen years later, because it was my first experience in a kitchen outside of the home. Three summer ago I had the privilege to work at Camp Royaneh as their Dining Hall Steward for Webelos Camp. Around two months after camp I decided to attend Johnson and Wales University for a bachelors in Culinary Arts. Looking back now I believe Royaneh helped make  my career path decision.