We interrupt Sami’s regular blogging schedule to bring you a 20SB Blog Swap. So… hi! I’m Lacey from Perks of Being a JAP and I’ll be your host today. The topic for this round of blog swapping is “summer”. When I asked Sami what he’d be writing about, he wrote something about summer reflections… and I drew a blank. So I thought about it and whenever I think about summer, I immediately think of summer camp…
Some of the best summers of my life were spent at sleepaway camp. Yep, I went to sleepaway camp complete with a lake (that no one swam in), rec hall, nature center, canteen and tents to sleep in. Oh and a pig named Bacon (and this was a Jewish camp!) But camp for me was more than that. Camp was the place to be myself and to get away from everything that plagued me at home.
See in school, I was… well I wasn’t one of the cool kids. I listened to punk and ska music when everyone else was listening to R&B and hip hop. I didn’t wear what the style that the other kids were wearing, and I also was super skinny, and had glasses and braces for a period of time too. Get the idea? Lacey = kinda nerdy. But two months out of the year, I was a cool kid. At summer camp I could be myself and I was actually liked! From 1992 – 1998, every summer I spent at that camp, I didn’t have to worry about trying to fit in. I fit in just by being me. I could wear funky t-shirts, listen to Ben Folds and Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and dye red Kool-Aid strips into my hair and no one batted an eye. I was who I was, and that was OK.
So summer for me isn’t just about fun trips, and days at the pool, or even mourning the loss of my youth, since now I have to work every day (grumble grumble). Summer reminds me that even though my younger school years may not have been the best, and I wasn’t one of the cool kids for 75% of theyear, I lived in the summers. Those eight weeks showed a young me that I didn’t have to pretend to be someone, because I was accepted for who I was. And that’s what made my summers so amazing.
BIO: Lacey (or Lacey Bean) is a sarcastic, funny & slightly spastic 20-something born and raised in NYC. Event planner by day, 20SB Social Media Manager by night. Easily amused, and obsessed with: travel, meal planning, baking, crossing items off my life list, my android phone, chasing down food trucks, GLEE!, collecting every Hard Rock Cafe shot class out there, & rubber duckies.
Find Lacey: Twitter | Blog | 20sb
This blog post makes this blog so much cooler and I can’t thank Lacey enough for it!
A flashmob meets a picnic kind of thing. Only this picnic was a really fabulous event of everyone dressed in white, eating a 3 course elegant meal. We were to guide a group of 20 people or more along with our own tables, chairs, food, etc. At first it seemed like people wouldn’t care much about an event that required a lot of work but before we knew it there were hundreds upon hundreds ready for the event. Everyone was so happy to be there and people got very creative with their foods, outfits and even decorations for their tables. Big congratulations to the founders of DeBChicago. Again, can’t wait for next year! Check out my flickr for more!
