I am Yellow.

Every summer for the past 12 years I have been known by the sunny

color from the middle of the Crayola box. Yellow is more than just

a color, more than just my favorite color; it is my nickname at

camp. I first went to camp the summer after third grade for three

days. Then I came back for four days, then six, then 10 until I was

spending my entire summer, from the end of May to the beginning of

August at camp.

I work at

Camp Tahigwa, a Girl Scout camp in northeast Iowa. I grew up going

there and when I became old enough, working there seemed second

nature. As a camper I looked up to my counselors like they were

superheroes. They were perfect in every way; they had awesome

nicknames, they were happy all the time and even if they had only

showered once the entire week, they somehow managed to appear

clean.

Campers pine

to be like their counselors – we would give each other nicknames

and try to skip out on showers, but it never worked out as well for

us. Until the summer

after sixth grade; I was an awkward junior-high student with bad

hair and

acne. I wasn’t

a counselor yet, I wasn’t even a counselor-in-training, but somehow

the group I was in convinced our counselors to let us pick

nicknames. I was finally going to get a nickname, and I had no idea

what it should be. I happened to be wearing a yellow t-shirt. I

sort of liked the color yellow, and one of the counselors suggested

it. The name seemed to stick, and I have been the epitome of yellow

ever since.

Camp has

given me more than just the nickname Yellow. It gave me a greater

appreciation for the environment. I don’t know how one couldn’t

feel it after seeing the fog lift off the meadow at Tahigwa in the

early morning and the sunset turn the sky red as it sets on the

hills of northeast Iowa.

Camp has

given me a second home, a second family. The people I have worked

with at camp are some of my best friends. Camp creates this special

bond that no one can understand until you have

it.

The greatest

gift working at camp has given me is the opportunity to give girls

the same experience I had as a camper. Camp has impacted my life in

so many ways; much of my success in life can be attributed to

something I learned from my counselors.

Now I am the

one helping other Girl Scouts become the strong women they are

meant to be. I am the one going a week without showering with a

smile on my face. I am Yellow.