Thursday, June 01, 2006

the midnight hike

you remember them don't you? summer camp...the coveted midnight hike? an invitation for disaster if you're name is breanna.

midnight hike story #1:

it was the summer after my 6th grade year. that's the year that you get to go on the midnight hike, at least for those of us at YBC. i was excited, to say the least. keep in mind that, prior to late jr. high, i was about as shy and reserved as i could possibly be. there was a boy. his name was nick. well, his name is still nick. you get the idea. he was a year older than me, and he was a drummer. instant crush, right? my much older friend spent three days building me up to have the courage to ask nick to go with me on the midnight hike. and for some insane reason, i went ahead and asked. his response? "i can't go cause now that i'm junior staff i have to stay and help in the kitchen." i was devastated. my first attempt at boycourage. but i thought it through. well, he didn't say he didn't WANT to go with ME, he said he COULDN'T. i can work with that. so i figured, who needs the midnight hike? i mean, sure, i've waited for it since i started coming to this camp in the 1st grade, but, whatever. so i decided to stay and help nick in the kitchen. i thought it would provide the PERFECT opportunity for him to realize he hearted me. so, as all my peers and their nervous dates took off up the mountain, i stayed behind and walked to the kitchen. i even put on an apron and some rubber gloves.

and waited.

for two hours

when i finally saw nick walking towards the kitchen, i got SO SO SO excited. until i realized that he was walking towards the kitchen with all the midnight hikers. MY midnight hikers from MY midnight hike. and he was walking with A GIRL. THE girl that he went with on the midnight hike. MY midnight hike. i hate boys.

side note: my crush continued long into the summer. when i set up my very own bank account a month later, i used nick's birthday as my pin number. TO THIS DAY when i take out some cash or buy shampoo and magazines, i'm reminded of how nick broke my little heart.

this is nick's myspace. feel free to send him nasty messages.

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midnight hike story #2:

fast forward several years. it's the summer after my sophomore year in high school. i'm much more mature and boy-wise at this point. this year, we went to SBC for the summer camp experience. there was a boy. he was a singer. A GREAT SINGER. instant crush, right? i will actually not expose who this fellow is, because A WHOLE LOT OF YOU know him. so i have this massive crush on him throughout the week. he was older, by about two years. and i was pretty sure he didn't know i existed. that was until the third day of camp when HE asked ME to go with him on the midnight hike. and i was all like, feeling GREAT about it. lucky me. i'd finally have the midnight hike i deserved. we didn't really talk to each other much throughout the week. i figured we were saving it all for some fireworky conversation on THE HIKE. so, the last night of camp comes along, and i spend quite a bit of time making sure that i look lovely, but not so lovely that i give away that i'm not much of the camping/non-midnight hiking kind of girl, lest he be an outdoorsy kind of fellow. i select my very best sweatshirt (you know, the one that smells the least awful by the end of the week) and i go to meet him at the agreed upon place.

and there he is!!

with another girl

i couldn't decide whether to run away or scream or cry or what. but that voice, the one that said "nick said he COULDN'T, not that he didn't WANT to" spoke up with "maybe they're just chatting while he waits for you. maybe they're related." so i walked right up, smile on face. and he looks at me, and says "hey...." all like "why are you interrupting?" and i say "isn't this where you wanted me to meet you?"

and that's when he realizes that he COMPLETELY FORGOT about asking me on the midnight hike. MY midnight hike. so he tries to make it all like, "yeah, there's a GROUP of us going..." except that the "group" was me, him and her. not my cup of tea.

so i said some kind of jumbled up, trying not to cry sentance about "oh, i was planning to walk with some of my friends...." which was a total lie, because ALL my friends had midnight hike partners of the opposite sex.

back to the cabin i went to cry.

a few years later, when we were going to the same college, and a mutual friend pointed out to this guy what he had done, he apologized, and it was fine, if not humiliating. but the moral of the story is as follows:

midnight hike = suck

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10 comments:

rebecca marie said...

i haven't read this yet, because i can't right now... all i have time for is to tell you that i got bit by a snake once on a midnight hike.

kay... will actually read this soon.

tabitha jane said...

midnight hike always equaled me walking with my friend ginger. at the beginning of the week, we would choose one totally out of our league guy and the rule was if he and ONLY he asked us on the hike we could ditch the other. of course he never would an we would always go together . . . most of you (cascadians) know who the two guys we would pick (they were the same every year) so i wont say who they were . . .

Unknown said...

Breanna, I'm sorry, I empathise, the best MLH that I remember was the one where I (as a staff member) carried a little girl, who had been stung by a bee and was having an allergic reaction, back to camp with another counselor . . . at least I felt like I had accomplished something worth-while that time.

Josh said...

yeah. midnight hikes suck!

actually i've never been on one but i'm sure they're quite delightful if you're not being screwed over by members of the opposite sex.

and that little girl crying is sort of scary. i actually recoiled a bit when i scrolled down. she kind of crept over the bottom of the screen.

she was leering.

rebecca marie said...

in eleventy billion years of camp hamhill, i only went on two midnight hikes with boyfriendy types. one was the summer between grade six and seven. heath zeller had just asked me to go with him (not on the hike, but to, you know "go with" him) so the date to the hike was implied. but what sucked are the following two things. one, he was only my second "will you go with me" boyfriend, and he didn't hold hands right. he didn't do the finger-lacie thing and i was so dissapointed... and two, he wasn't trey bonner. who i was sure had a crush on my but my friend asked him to go with her. that story worked itself out as i ruthlessly broke heath's heart, and trey asked me to go with him at a t-n-t later that summer, and i was able to begin my private school experience going with one of the coveted bonner boys.

the second boyfriendy types was faithquest, my 17th birthday. also, one of the four people i was actually in love with. it wasn't technically a midnight hike, but it was around midnight, and we did sneak off and hike somewhere where we could make out like, well, make out like bandits. nothing more than kissing though, i was a good girl.

other than that, i just pined away.

it was great to be a councelor. a popular one. i just picked the cutest camper and asked HIM to go with ME.

done and done.

James T Wood said...

Midnight hikes sound like hurtful crappy experiences all around. I'd never been to a camp that did them until I was a camp recruiter. Looks like I didn't miss out on much.

Word verification: lbbbtinb

Priscilla said...

i always hated midnight hikes too. so when i was in jr high my friends and i ALL lied and said we were on our period so that we could stay in the cabin. so there were like 6 of us "all" on our "periods" laughing it up and having a great time...until our counselors got back and wanted to know what was up...and we told them we lied. we had way more fun than all those lovesick kids on the hike...that's for sure!!! pris

bscarter said...

Nick is suck.

And he has rap-metal on his profile. He really is suck.

James T Wood said...

Priscilla, thanks for signing that post - I was worried the Jeb was telling people he was on his period . . .

Mike Lewis said...

I am a better drummer.

I remember sucktastic midnight hikes at Sierra Bible Camp. The one time I asked a girl I got totally turned down...not that I thought she would even say yes.

I always dreaded that night more than anything else...I knew it was creeping up during the week as I saw all my buddies hooking up and I was left by myself.

If only I had devoted my time to memorizing my Bible or something then I wouldn't have had to worry about it.