I went once when I was 13. There isn't anything I can say I learned. In fact, I felt like it was too much structure created around diabetes. It just was more reminder that I was different.

The camp I went to had a major river going through it, so I thought I would go fishing. I was terrible at fishing in rivers (still am, but at least I know a lot more now). There were no activities set up for people who wanted to go fishing. I brought my own pole and such, and went off on my own to fish while everyone else participated in the established activities. I never really fit in with other kids, diabetic or not. I still don't... I'm much more comfortable being alone than with a group.

This camp was in a rural wooded area along a river, with a gravel road leading to it. They had the older kids there for the whole week while the younger kids were split up into 2 camps, each lasting half of the week. On Wed., the first group of younger kids left and the next group came in.

This young kid (5 years old? I don't remember if he was 5 or 8) wandered off into the woods right away as soon as he arrived on Wed. around noon. So throughout the afternoon, they kept paging him on the loudspeaker system to return to his cabin. They sent search parties out into the woods throughout the afternoon and evening. They even brought in divers to search the river, but no dice. Finally at night, the young kids are all asleep already and us older kids had our night time gathering and snack and such. They told us about what was going on, that one of the buildings was being used as a base of operations for all the searchers, and said they would use infrared, so everyone had to be sure to stay inside once we got back to our cabins (otherwise they would think you are the missing kid). As I was heading back to my cabin, this kid comes up behind me... missing a shirt, muddy. He asked me if I could show him where the camp was. So I told him to come with me to the lodge building where all the emergency people were at, and he was 'found.'

I went to camp only a month after being diagnosed. This majorly impacted me in a positive way for the rest of my life. I was diagnosed at age 6 over the summer. They kept me in the hospital for a full week and wouldn't let me go home until I could do my shots on my own. I remember then being home and crying because I didn't want to give myself the shots. Anyway a month later I was sent to camp and met a lot of kids my age with the same problem and I learned how to do all sorts of things such as tie dye t-shirts and how much to eat. I felt like a normal kid again and I think the stuff I learned at camp made it much easier for me to transition back to school in September where I was the only kid with diabetes. I learned how to manage my diabetes on my own largely at camp. I didn't keep in touch with anyone but I remember I really liked camp and went back for the next 8 summers. I eventually worked at camp when I was in college. The best part of camp was the night time activities. I loved capture the flag. We also did a Rambo hike and mock rock. The best thing I learned was how to give shots in my arm myself (hard to do when you are an akward little kid aged 8?).