Sandra Murriner Short Story Putnam County

My Years in 4-H

When I was younger my parents took me to camp with them. When I would sit with them I would always wonder why I couldn't do what everybody else was doing. After that my aunt took me with her and I got to sit with the tribe. I have always known what tribe I wanted to be in. I always thought that the thunderblrd was cool. When I finally turned 9 I got excited because I knew I would be able to go to camp. When It finally came time for camp twas the night before camp which is teen night. My mamaw let me stay with her in the lodge .. l remember that night because we went to bed and mawmaw got a call saying that somebody got hurt, so she had to go check on them so me and her drove down to the cabin so that she could check on her. She ended up bringing them to the room and she stayed in the room with us so mawmaw could keep an eye on her. When it came the night that I could stay in the cabins I was nervous and excited all at the same time. When I got to my first class I was excited. After I got used to going to camp it got to the point that it felt like home and i didnt wanna leave. When covid hit we were all sad because camp was canceled. None of us could have imagined that it would have to go without having camp for 3 years. There were a lot of the older kids that did not get to experience being either chief or sag. I didn't get to experience being sag when we all came back to camp. I went straight into being chief. At first I had no idea what I was doing and I thought that I was going to mess something up. When I got toward the middle I was getting used to being chief. The one thing I loved about being chief was getting to listen to all of the ideas for the funny stunts and skits. My favorite thing was going to the council circle and standing up and singing and listening to my tribe cheer as loud as they can. Camp is really fun and camp is also a place where you can meet new people and make new friends. Some of my close friends I met at camp. 2 of my close friends worked alongside me, one was my sag and the other one was chief for one of the other tribes. You do a lot of fun activities together and you do a lot of team building activities and you do a lot of competing with other tribes. Your first year you get to pick what tribe you are in, sometimes you will get the tribe you want and other times you get placed in one. It all depends on how many kids are already in the tribe. When it comes to your chief year you more and likely will be chief of your tribe but there have been times that you might have to go be chief for a different tribe. If you are one of the older ones and all of the other ones are younger then you will probably get put in a different tribe. We have a thing that is called a water field meet and you do a lot of fun activities like relays. Most of the time you are competing with other tribes and when your tribe has finished then all of you have to sit down so they know what tribes are done and what tribes still have people going. A lot of the times your tribe will get an advantage.

Sandra Murriner

20

Short Story

Putnam