Curveball

Holy. Moly. 
Today has been a whirlwind of a day to say the very least. 

Let's start at the beginning. 
I was planning on working at The Painted Turtle for the entire summer, leaving last Sunday at 5 am. 

I had postponed packing till the last minute, finally finishing at 10 pm Saturday night. Not five minutes after zipping my suitcase closed I got a phone call saying that a wildfire had gotten within a couple mile radius of camp and that they had to evacuate The Painted Turtle staff to a local high school until further notice (some of this summer's employees were already there.) I would still be picked up however, just like was planned, but would most likely be hanging at the high school gym with the others. After the phone call ended I set my alarm, and was happy dancing with excitement. My mind would not stop racing as I anticipated and imagined the magical summer that was in store.

Then came midnight.

Right as I had started to fall asleep, I semi-woke to my phone ringing from same number that had called me earlier. This time the news wasn't so great. The convo went a little something like this:

Dylan: *Groggily "Hello?"
TPT Person: *Not groggily "Hey Dylan, unfortunately we've got some bad news. The fire has gotten dangerously closer to camp and we are not having any more employees fly in until further notice." 
Dylan: *Not so groggily anymore "Are you serious."
TPT Person: *Definitely not groggily "Unfortunately, yep."

I hung up the phone and frantically called my camp BFF/sister from last year and we both hopped online to see if there was any news on the fire. Both of us were (literally) sick to our stomachs (#crohnieprobs) about the possibility of losing camp and everything we were finding made us feel worse. 

We got off the phone, attempted to catch some shut eye, and awoke the next morning to hear that camp, that despite being surrounded by the "Powerhouse Fire" which had covered 32,032 acres, had survived. 

It was a miracle. 

See that little yellow circle? That's camp.

To say I was thanking my lucky stars was an understatement.

I received another phone call on Monday saying we would know more Tuesday, and a phone call Tuesday saying we would know more Wednesday, hanging in limbo, not knowing a whole lot about what would end up happening.

Today though, I  heard the final word. Camp wouldn't be opening for the summer. Despite the buildings receiving hardly any damage, the  camp grounds were scorched and required a lot of rescue work. Along with the that, the air quality was crappy, and there were a couple of other things that were not up to the turtle's health and safety standards for the kids. 

During this time of "limbo" I have had some time to think about some things. 
Including "This sucks."
But also the good.

Two summers ago I was in the hospital for 6 months, incapable of doing anything on my own. 

Last summer I had one of the most life-changing summers of my existence with the most incredible people at camp. 

But this summer, I get to stay at home. 

Now, whether I stay at home-home is still in question, but a fun summer in the home-state is something that hasn't happened in quite a while. 

Silver lining?

I have learned that life can throw a pretty fast curveball. 
But there's not a whole lot you can do about it.
All you can do, is roll with it and try your best to keep up.

So here's to whatever life chucks at me next.

p&B.