Anna and I have been planning for 2 weeks to surprise our campers (boarders at Catalina) as one last goodbye before she leaves for the peace corps. She flew in on Friday to San Jose and one of our other campers who lives in SF, Claire, and I drove down to pick her up. We then drove down to Monterey to stay at my house and we were joined by 4 other counselors. We spent Friday night making smores, taking thousands of pictures and videos, and plotting for the next morning. Anna and Meg stayed in the guest room while Brenna, Ivanna, Claire, and I stayed in my room. Ivanna fell asleep pretty quickly but Claire, Brenna, and I stayed up talking for awhile which I think Claire really enjoyed. We were able to hear about the tough transition high school has been for her and give her some of our advice to help her through it. It was a really nice bonding moment.
7 am came REALLY fast. Although we were dead tired, we piled into our cars and drove to Catalina, still dead quiet as it was 8 am by the time we reached campus. We first knocked on the door of our favorite/most incredible teacher who was also the assistant director of camp. Saw her amazing kids, filled her in on more of the details of our plan, and then we headed over to Thompson dorm. I had Anna's camera and I took the video of them sneaking over to the dorm. I guided them down the hallway to Katie and Caroline's room and captured their very shocked and amazed reactions as 7 of us piled into their room. We were greeted with similar reactions by the other rooms. Lots of hugging, laughing, and well screaming. We quickly became very unpopular with the other freshmen who did not know us and did not appreciate the noise at 8 am. We went down to the dining hall with the girls and it was just like camp all over again. Singing Edelwiess (in a round) at the top of our lungs, playing the clapping game that has become camp tradition, and general happiness and merriment. We eventually ended up at the dance studio and had the biggest most epic dance party of our lives. I absolutely loved it. The tears starting flowing when we eventually had to leave-they nearly didn't let Anna leave. But we got back into our cars and Anna, Claire, and I drove up to SF. Ivanna and Brenna would join us soon. We drove to Orinda, BARTed into the city (anna's first experience-very exciting) and took the cable car to Claire's completely adorable flat. She lives right across from a wonderful park and next to the magnificent Grace Cathedral. We spent awhile walking around, playing in the park, taking pictures by the chapel...so much fun. We eventually were met by Ivanna and Brenna and had dinner. We walked across almost the entire city the end of the day and were completely exhausted but completely content with life. Anna returned to SMC with me where she met my suitemates as well as Liam and Danielle. I gave her a campus tour, showing her everything that was important to me at school. Eventually it was time to take her back to the airport and although I was sad, I was distracted and happy enough that it wasn't a sad goodbye. More of a "I love you see you in 2 years" kind of goodbye.
The tears didn't start until about an hour ago. Suddenly I am completely overwhelmed by the fact that I won't see her for over 2 years and there is a possibility of her getting killed. She's going to Niger, the poorest country in the world and also a center of violence at times. This realization is starting to settle in and I am so scared I can hardly express it. I've never been so fearful for someone's life before nor had so little control over the situation. Our only communication will be letters. If something happens to her...well...I'm not going to be the first to know about it. And it's scary knowing she will be alone and scared at times and that there is a possibility of her getting hurt or worse, killed, and I won't know about it. I'm saying a million prayers and hoping that Anna has both the time of her life and comes back happy, healthy, and rejuvenated. I must be brave.
Dear God...please bring her back safely. She has to come back. We love her too much.
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