11 things everyone who went to writing camp knows to be true

Can I get a big “hell yeah” for writing camps? *two or three people cheer, one of whom misheard the question*

But seriously, while something that was essentially just more school sounds like the last thing teens would want to do during their precious summer vacation, many of us—through passion or force—ended up in some secluded campus, going to class, and writing our brains out.

When I think back on my time at a summer camp focused on writing, I remember being sweaty, exhausted, and crazy inspired. It was both the most intense and most rewarding thing I’ve ever done; as an adult, I look back fondly on all the time that I had just to write.

For anyone else out there who spent their summers hunched over a desk at writing camp, here are some things we can totally relate to:

1. Packing pencils instead of bathing suits.

2. Getting up earlier for class in the summer than you ever do during the school year.

3. Going to class all day for writing and then relaxing in your room with . . . more writing.

4. Comparing metaphors instead of tan lines.

5. The most heated arguments were about Charles Dickens versus Jane Austen.

6. Meeting, falling in love, writing about, and falling out of love with one person during the space of two weeks.

7. Waking up anxious every morning that you’d have to read your work aloud that day.

8. Writing a poem about how depressed your friends’ exotic vacation photos make you feel.

9. Dancing horribly during the one camp party, because you’re kids who go to writing camp, so how else are you supposed to dance?

10. Coming back from summer vacation just as pale as when it started.

11. Being okay will all of this, because you just got an idea for the best story ever.