Hi, my name is Shannon Melody and I’m in Grade 7. It’s an honour for me to have this opportunity to share my camp experience. A little spoiler, it’ll show the roller coaster of emotions that I’ve gone through in my first MYP camp experience. This camp happened not so long ago; it was on the 30th of September and continued for 4 nights and five days until the 4th of October. I learned a bunch of new things and some life lessons. I even did some activities that I actually hadn’t planned on joining.

During the camp to Pandaan, it felt different from any other camp that I have previously joined. Somehow, it felt more exhausting but trust me, it is worth it. This camp was a little hard for me because I felt really homesick; I had never been separated from my parents for that long. I was really grateful that the teachers could understand the situation and let our parents visit us. Dealing with homesickness, I tried to think positively and always remind myself that if you can’t be separated from your parents for 4 nights, how can you learn to adapt in the real world and how can you learn to survive without them. I tried to make myself realize that 4 days will past like a flash and just have fun! Like most of the students, it was my first time sleeping in a tent. The first night was a nightmare because I couldn’t settle to the tent situation and I could not sleep because my body felt sore. But the second day’s activity was pretty exhausting so that drove me directly to sleep and luckily I was fast asleep until 5 O’clock in the morning. The bonfire was very emotional for me. Ms. Niken’s stunning speech made almost everyone cry.

I learnt and tried a lot of new things that I had never done before. Funny story, it was my first time river tubing, 9 of my friends and I had planned the river tubing position that we wanted to choose, but suddenly the river tubing crew grouped me with the teachers. At first, it was kind of awkward but I immediately lost that feeling and had fun anyways. I was sad when the river tubing was over because it was so much fun and it was the most fun activity in my opinion. It was also my first time cooking by myself, only with my friends and a little bit of help from an adult. We had a few disagreements about the taste, some said that it was too salty and some said that it was too sweet and we tried to figure out our own solution together, as a team. Before camp, I had not planned to join the airsoft gun activity because I wasn’t brave enough, but when my friends told me it was fun, I challenged myself to join, and it was really entertaining.

To sum up, this camp was a really fun and challenging experience. It taught me to be tough, independent, responsible, cooperative and caring to others. Although it was tiring, I was so happy to have joined this camp. To be honest, I’ve missed camp already. There was a bunch of memories, sweet and bitter during this Grade 7 ‘Ready to Take Off’ camp. Next, Grade 8 camp, here I come!