#19- Plastics (Chelsea Southworth)

It came on the very last day of camp that any of us would ever experience.

We are all sitting in our little nook sharing sniffles and cuddles, trying to come to terms with the fact that we could never return to what we all considered the most perfect place in existence. We'd all known it was coming, but that did nothing to stop the tears that slowly rolled down our cheeks, the last melancholy drops of fountains that had been flowing for hours.

Then Sam, our Residential Counselor, our beloved Mama Hedgehog, posed a simple question: What did you love most about TIP?

The stories came haltingly at first, then soon poured out of us in rivers- but there was something in common with every touching tale told, every recounting of the warm smiles and warm words that were as constant as the North Carolina heat on our shoulders.

That was when Sam said something that, in all honesty, changed my life. "The one thing that every single one of you has talked about is acceptance," she told us, her face as somber as ours but filled with a wisdom we had not yet reached. "Acceptance, and how you wish it didn't have to be over...but it doesn't. If you carry this feeling of TIP- this unquestioning, automatic love you have for one another, this way of assuming that everyone is amazing and this celebration of all your quirks and flaws- if you take this with you and act like this no matter where you go, you can make life just wonderful as these past three weeks were."

Sappy, right? "I'm always with you...right here, in your heart." Except, well, Sam was right. At TIP, if you see a guy performing magic tricks in the quad, your first thought is magic? Show me some of that! You're so talented, wow! rather than magic? Laaaaame. At TIP, the quiet ones aren't ignored or shunned as freaks; anyone sitting alone is promptly joined by at least one other person, who is content with carrying the conversation until they find the topic that gets their new friend talking (and there always is one). At TIP, dashing through the halls and asking a second-year guy that you've never spoken to if you can borrow his clothes for Wear a Dress Wednesday (really Cross Dress Day) is completely acceptable, as are water-gun wars with the fourth-year guys and impromptu Disney sing-a-long sessions.

This is getting long because I'm getting emotional, but I think there's something beautiful about the acceptance and love of TIP, and it's something that I've tried to live into in my own life ever since I came back. To quote the speech of another fourth-year girl, "TIP is my Narnia, TIP is my Neverland. TIP is where I can wear a cape around all day and the only comment I get is, 'Nice cape.'"

TIP is llove, as the Easties with their Llama are fond of saying, and that llove is what I try to express. TIP is my home, and though I can't go back to my family, I can use what they taught me to make my life as TIPtastic (TIPsters are fond of these words. See: TIPression, RelationTIP (sometimes called tipTIPtipTIP) and TIPpropriate) as possible.