Living with Neurodivergence

I went to a recruitment fair for Camp America. I was hoping to get a place in a normal camp with normal children but I could tell as I was going around talking to them that they wanted me to sign up to the special needs one. I had worked for the NHS Staffbank for about a year and a half now and I had a lot more experience of working with different age groups and people with disabilities as I was sent to different wards within the hospital, so I think they thought I was more suited to that kind of work. There were some awkward questions in the application form where I didn’t know if I was supposed to be doing it but I didn’t see I had to disclose any issues throughout school as they were so long ago and I felt they were my own business so just carried on with it. I got a place and was so happy, I just had to pay it up in installments as there was a fee for the flight etc. I told some people I worked with I was going to America. I didn’t feel that good about leaving for close to 4 months but I needed it after some of the nightmare flatmates I had and a year in a bedsit in the middle of Edinburgh. It was okay but it became quite claustrophobic at times and I went out by myself sometimes just to get out of it. I paid off the installments and felt really good about myself when I knew I had it paid and I knew for sure I was going. I had lost some weight during my 6 month stay in the flat by walking loads and eating a bit less. I was about 13 stones and a size 14 still but I had been more so I felt good. I brought in healthy snacks to work like snack a jacks and yoghurts and people commented on it so I kept it off for a while before I went to America. I travelled to Glasgow the night before and stayed at the holiday inn for the night, it was a nice stay and I had a decent breakfast the following morning that I paid for with the pennies I had saved during my year at the bedsit. The next day I flew to London. The airport was packed and I seen some people I knew were Camp America. I stayed close to them until it was time to start boarding. The flight was about 9 hours, I spoke to another girl from Edinburgh during it. We got dinner and drinks but the flight still really took it out of me and by the time we arrived in new jersey I think I had become a bit dehydrated. We got a goodie bag on arrival at the hotel with a sandwich, a muffin and a bottle of water. The rooms were big but there were a few of us that had to share. When I went down to breakfast the following day I felt terrible. My head was banging, my eyes were sore and I felt sick. I tried to force some breakfast down but it was difficult, I could only take little sips. Everyone around me was getting excited about the camp but I didn’t even know if I was going to make it there. I got talking to a girl from st Helens and she came with me to the target shop to get some more water. I think she was studying to be a nurse or something as she showed a bit more concern than some of them. Fortunately during the bus journey up to the Catskill mountains I started to feel a bit better and started to look forward to it. It took ages to get up there but it was a nice journey, when we got to the camp we got our fingerprints taken, which was a bit embarrassing as I had some cuts to mine from biting them but it made me determined not to do it again, then we met the camp owner and family and got shown around the camp. We got assigned to cabins and we’re allowed to settle in a bit. We had some training in the following days to prepare us for the campers. The first camper I had was quite an old guy and he had some mobility issues, it wasn’t really what I had imagined as I had to help him get up and he wasn’t the most enthusiastic of people. It was hard work at times and I was exhausted by the end of the day as the cabin leader told me one day but there were nice moments when we got to take them out on the lake on the boat. I had to do a swim test first, which I was scared about as people were saying the water was freezing but I was told I  couldn’t go out on the boat unless I could do it, so I did. I completed it, I was a bit out of breath but glad I could do all the activities. The other campers were challenging too, there were some self harming behaviours and one with a severe mental health condition but I got through it and we got 2 weeks in between campers to go somewhere and take a break from the campers.I had made some friends and we went to New York during our breaks but usually came back early just to have some time before the new campers arrived. There were some on camp activities for us too such as speed dating which was quite funny as I had never done it before but it broke the ice between people. We got 1 hour break during the day, sometimes a bit more if someone else didn’t mind watching them. A German girl watched one of mine for a while but not for long. I think I got an extra half hour but it was nice as we just relaxed and watched DVDs together. It was a comfortable room with couches and computers. I gained some weight in camp as there was so much food and only the camp to move around in. Sometimes we would go for walks but we mostly just stayed in camp while the campers were there. While in New York we visited the central park and I loved the outdoor swimming pool which I swam up and down quite a few times. We went round a few shops and visited the usual places including a famous Irish bar in New York. One day while in camp I became Ill, I hadn’t been feeling well and I told one of the other girls but I didn’t want to be I’ll and just carried on, I decided I would get an early night and see how I felt in the morning as there was the swine flu pandemic going about. When I woke I felt terrible and had to tell the cabin leader I wasn’t able to work today as I was ill. He could be funny about illness but he told me to go to the nurse. I went and got tested and my temperature was 102 which was dangerously high. I was isolated in the medical centre for days where they could monitor it. I got medication for the swine flu and luckily my temperature came down or I would have been hospitalized. I got a card from some of the other people there, which made me feel better. I spent about 5 days there and left when I heard they were having a BBQ as I felt a bit better. I was even looking forward to meeting the next camper…