WA 1 Draft 2

Most people miss people more and more as time passes. In the middle of June I arrived at Interlochen, an arts camp with 81 years of traditions, including the uniform and knickers. I didn’t know anyone, the buildings all looked unfamiliar- Kresge and the Bowl, Stone and Corson, Pinecrest. Amidst all the fear and nerves I was feeling, I knew I really wanted to be there. The sky was blue and the air was crisp and clear, like a new book waiting to be read. I was scared to see my parents leave; I could only hope that the girls that I would be spending 6 weeks living with would like me. As time passed, I missed my parents less and less. I dreaded the day that they would come and take me away. The girls in my cabin who were once perfect strangers did grow to love me, and I grew to love them too. The once seemingly unfamiliar landscape and buildings became more familiar to me then the place I called home.
Interlochen became my home, and the girls in my cabin became my family. We joked that our counselors were like our parents, and we even ventured to call them ‘Mommy’ and ‘Daddy’ every once in a while. People always say that you never really get to know someone until you live with them. Well, we knew everything about everyone in our cabin. Personal hygiene was no longer private and living habits revealed themselves more and more throughout the summer. Like sisters, we confided our problems to each other- secrets we could not even confide in with our best friends at home. Huddled on our bunk beds way past when the rules said the lights should be off, we would sit with flashlights and talk late into the night. Throughout the entire summer, the thought of having to write train- letters loomed over us all. Train-letters marked the end of a segment of our lives that we didn’t want to end.
As soon as I got in the rental car with my parents at 6 am I grabbed for my envelope of train letters. I had been up for an hour already with my friends Molly and Genevieve. Throughout the summer, we had formed traditions such as frolicking to Frohlich, the piano percussion building, and the most important were our daily randez- vous on the road after classes. We would watch all the staff walk by on the way to their cabins and talk about our days. I had an 8 am flight, so my parents were coming at 6. we had decided that on the last day, before any of us had left, we would have our final frolic to Frohlich and our final randez- vous. So by the time I was with my parents, I was already crying. I couldn’t imagine what these letters would do to me.
Train letters are an Interlochen tradition. Your friends write you a letter telling you everything they didn’t get to tell you and things they already have told you, but are worth repeating. They remind you of things that you’ve done together and what about you they love. When Interlochen first was started, people used to read their on the train. Now, you read them on your way home, regardless of the transportation method. During the last week of camp, I had been eyeing the envelope with my name on it fill up with the letters from the girls whom I had begun to think of as family. I had to resist every temptation to read what my friends had written while I was still with them. I had to wait until I left and make use of every last second we had together meaningful.
The letters were packed with emotion and six weeks full of feelings, like a suitcase after a long journey. There were so many memories jammed into one page that my tears couldn’t hold back. My letters were filled with all sorts of compliments and memories. As good as the compliments made me feel, the tears where flowing faster and harder then before.
On the plane, I read the letter from Genevieve. I had stopped crying before I got to security in the airport, but Genevieve’s letter did me in. Her letter was so concise, yet so intense that I just began to sob right on the spot. I’m fairly sure the guy in the seat next to me did not have the faintest idea of how I felt and thought I was crazy. Genevieve has straight, a medium shade of brown hair that stops half way down her bicep. She has hazel eyes and a Chicago accent. Genevieve always says how much she hates people, but she likes an unusual amount of people at Interlochen. She is fairy sarcastic, and so she managed to keep herself in this letter and still tell what she wanted to say. She wrote:
“Sara, I love you more then anything I’ve loved anything in my life. You may wonder why? You may not. Either way, I’m going to tell you anyway. You are amazing! You’re super- talented, have awesome hair, are really pretty in general, are fun and funny, and are super nice. Most importantly, you supply me with a general supply of tic- tacs.”

Some people wrote another type of train letter- like Molly for instance. Molly has hair resembling Rapunzel- thick, long and blonde, and a quick wit. She wrote about the memories of some of the things that we did together:
“Who will I randez- vous with? Who/ where will I frolick with/to? Whose iPod will I borrow? Who will I eat with at stone, fantasize about the reading orchestra, sing Company with, get kicked out of Corsen and DeRoy, follow the guy who thinks he’s my teacher’s potential lovers and be crazy with?”
The memories made me smile and feel good, but the tears were still flowing because I knew that we could never frolick to Frohlich or randez- vous in the road with Molly anymore. We wouldn’t be able to make any new stories and keep up the traditions that we had formed.

When I got off of the plane, I had read a dozen more letters that I had similar reactions to that of Genevieve and Molly’s. By the time I landed in the Detroit airport, I had regained my composure, with only bloodshot eyes and a flushed face to hint at my previous state. I checked my phone, and it said that I had a voice mail from my viola teacher from Interlochen, Jane. Jane is one the people I had grown closest to at Interlochen, besides Molly and Genevieve. She was everyone’s mother, and loved every one of her students just as much as she did her own. I listened to the message, already trying to blink back the rivers I could feel forming in my eyes. Jane apologized for not getting me my train letter in time, and was calling to leave me a train voicemail. By this point, the rivers I had successfully managed to hold back suddenly became like Niagara Falls and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. I was a huge spectacle in the Detroit airport, but nonetheless, Jane’s message pushed me into tears that I knew wouldn’t be the last I shed about being home from Interlochen.
Since August 3rd, I have read and reread those letters from the girls that I had spent six weeks living with countless times. I have shed countless tears over the memories I have for this summer, for these girls. We fantasize about having a summer just like the last one, yet we are all on edge about next summer. We would be in a new, older, more competitive age group. All we can do is hope that the hard work we put into our audition CD is good enough for us to have another summer all together.