By Aniah Bland, 2013 Raleigh Junior Counselor

During these past four weeks at Raleigh Strong Camp, we have learned many lessons and played many games. Although they were all enjoyable and fun, my favorite lesson so far has been Sisterhood. With camp in general it is a struggle to make sure everyone gets along, and to keep the drama to a minimum. By with this being an all-girls camp, I thought it would be even more of challenge.  So I was excited to hear about the Sisterhood lesson that was going to be taught on the first day.

Walking into camp, I was nervous, because like many people, I don’t like to share my feelings openly. The first lesson was like an ice-breaker, where we talked about how easy it was for us to put on a show instead of showing how we really felt. Mrs. Shenette, who was teaching the lesson, told us how important it was for us to be transparent, because most of us show the complete opposite of how we really feel. Not only is being transparent easier than pretending, but it’s hard to build a relationship or trust in a person that is fake. We all left the class feeling a little more connected because we knew that we all had been hurt and felt lonely before, and we understood how if we were our real selves that we could build a safe space at camp with each other.

The next lesson was harder than the first because this time we would be doing even more of the talking. We were separated into small groups. Summer Fellow Taylor read out loud questions for each of us to go around and answer. The questions weren’t hard so we all went around talking about things that would let our group know us more than they previously had. It was the next part of the lesson that made me uncomfortable. We all rejoined in a big circle. We were given the prompt “If you really knew me,” and had to fill in the rest with something that people normally wouldn’t know. This was more challenging because we had to share our lives, and our secrets in a room full of 20 people that we didn’t know. But by doing it we would have a better understanding of everyone, and the things that made them who they were.

Since these lessons early on in camp, we have all become a family, and we are able to be honest and share how we feel. Our sisterhood has been challenged on a few occasions, but we were always able to sit down and discuss it and to solve our problems. Because of Strong Camp, I know that I have sisters for life.