Summer Camp Obs

[Lilsgjerd]

Oh boy... so I have been lurking on here for years and have been too scared to create an account and post anything. But recently I ended up creating an account, fully with the intention of just reading stories and obs on here (everyone here is so good at writing!!) but I'm getting my courage up to post these two obs from a while back. I'm hesitant to post because I have this fear that the people in them or someone I know in person is going to stumble across them 😅 But here it is, my first post!!

So I go to this summer camp every year. It's a week-long sleepaway camp where everyone hangs out and does activities with the people in their age group, so obviously that means a lot of obs.  It's run by college aged counselors (which feels weird saying, considering I'm now in college), and there are a lot of... um. Very attractive people who volunteer for this camp. I identify as bisexual but I am definitely more into men, and I have a couple moments I'd like to share.

First, this one happened around 2 years ago. This guy was one of my unit's counselors, and he had been mine a couple of years beforehand. I had the biggest crush on him (I still kinda do, but he's graduated from college by now and has a girlfriend so it would never work). Let's call him Andrew. "Andrew" was super sweet and really funny, and VERY attractive. As I said before, I'd known him for a couple years already and had been crushing on him since I met him. Key point: I had never seen him sneeze. (Is it just me who is embarrassed even typing that word? Because I'm embarrassed) So one day, we're out in the sun early in the day and I was standing next to him, listening to the rest of the group go over what we were going to do that day. He was sniffling a little bit and OF COURSE I noticed it () but didn't think it meant anything. Suddenly, he abruptly took in a breath, quickly turned away, and sneezed. It was my first time ever hearing him sneeze, and I was kinda in shock and replaying that moment in my head so I completely spaced out and didn't bless him. 🤦‍♀️ He stayed in that position for a few more seconds and then turned back and that was that. I didn't think I'd get to hear any more, but I was quickly proven wrong...

Later on, we were eating lunch as a group and "Andrew" sneezed again. This time I was able to recover from my shock fast enough to bless him. I always feel a bit awkward blessing people, because I'm afraid I'll out myself or something 😅. I thought those two sneezes would be it, but I was lucky that day.

So our group goes to one of the buildings and we were doing this group activity when "Andrew" starts sneezing. It was pretty evenly spaced out, about every minute or so. This was also two years ago so my memory is probably not the best. But he was sneezing so much he had to go outside to get it under control, and when he came back in, he started again. I was turned on but I also felt bad because he was clearly embarrassed. We finished our group activity and start walking outside to our next activity, and this man is STILL sneezing as we're walking. It's becoming more frequent at this point, and at this point, I also was getting paranoid that I would end up outing myself so I ended up walking ahead of the group with another girl from my unit. His fit got so bad he had to go to the nurse's station and take his allergy meds 😭 I didn't see him for the next few hours but when he came back, he seemed better but was still clearly sniffly. I was kind of worried about him so I mouthed "you good?" to him and he gave me a tired thumbs up which I thought was cute. Later that night, we were back in the same room just talking as a unit, and he starts joking around with one of the other guy counselors, and suddenly started saying, "Have you ever sneezed over 10 times in a row before? Because I do, like all the time." And I literally died inside because on one hand, my crush on him just got bigger, and on the other hand, I was again afraid I would out myself somehow. 😭

Didn't get any more obs from this guy over the course of the week but he's such a great guy, so I was just glad to hang out with him. We still keep in contact, though we don't talk a ton. I still do have a little bit of a crush on him, but it would never work. 

 

Moving on to the second obs! This isn't really an obs, because it doesn't have any sneezing in it, but I'm gonna include this because there's a lot of me freaking out in it as well. 

Side note: one thing about this camp is that all the counselors (and some of the campers) choose fun camp names for themselves, which are usually things related to experiences or parts of their personality. You can probably see where this is going...

So this happened last year, and I get to the spot where we drop off our luggage for the week and start hanging out with our groups again, in order to get to know each other. A lot of us campers have been going to this camp since we were little, so we all know each other pretty well, but we get new counselors each year. I'm talking with people in my unit and catching up with them, and I see that one of my guy counselor's camp name is "Sneeze." And he was EXTREMELY attractive. I started freaking out internally; why was that his camp name? why did he have to be one of my counselors? I don't know if anyone else does this, but I get super embarrassed even saying that word. My mental block is insane, not only with me sneezing in public, but also with me saying the word, hearing the word, typing the word, and even blessing people to some extent. I think I've gotten a little better at this, but it's still a major problem. 

Anyway, the week passed and I tried to subtly get close to him or look at him, but I didn't see a single sneeze from this guy. I couldn't even say his name until I think the last day of the week 🤦‍♀️. He was kind of shy and quiet, and he had this deep voice that I thought was very attractive. I didn't get to know him super well, and I was kind of kicking myself for not talking with him much during the week, so on the LAST DAY, at pickup, I went up to him and was like, "hey, I wish we got to know each other better, you seem cool," and asked (very chill, I was pretty proud of myself) if he had an Instagram or any social media. He gave me his Instagram and leaned down and WHISPERED HIS REAL NAME IN MY EAR (because he hasn't graduated yet and he's not supposed to reveal his real name to campers who weren't graduating and since I was graduating, I got to know it). I was actually screaming inside and I was very turned on. I was the only camper who got his Instagram and was the only camper who he followed too, and I was pretty smug about that. He's not super active, though, and I never got the courage to reach out to him 😭 also he recently deleted his Instagram so I can't message him which sucks. But he's not graduating yet, and I'm planning to be a counselor myself next year, so maybe something will happen... 

 

Anyway, these were my two (sorta) obs. Hope you enjoyed, and am looking forward to interacting with this lovely community more!

[solitaire-au]

Hey, congratulations for being courageous enough to create an account and post!

Thank you for sharing the observations with us.

Also, while Mr Sneeze may have deleted his Instagram account, you can always try doing a search for him elsewhere, particularly on LinkedIn. Even people that have zero social media presence often have a LI account, because of its importance in finding work in the future.

Good luck! I hope it works out for you. If it’s ok with you, I would love to hear how things go for you!

[Lilsgjerd]

Thank you! I really appreciate the welcome. Unfortunately, I only know his first name and it's pretty common so I probably wouldn't be able to find him. Also I probably wouldn't be brave enough 😭😆 I will definitely update this in the future at some point, no matter what happens  

[brokensneeze]

Also, just the fact that he chose the nickname "sneeze" doesn't mean he's a sneezy person, or likes sneezing, or anything like that (though on the other hand, it might). I would have been like "Why did you choose the name 'sneeze', that seems really random?", before trying to get to know him more. I know that question probably sounds mortifying to you, but it's likely in fact less awkward to him than a camper who he barely knows contacting him through social media wanting to hang out. He probably was just trying to be funny and would probably answer it with no prodding on your part. It might even be a way to start a sneezy discussion, without having to come across as the slightest bit weirdly obsessive.

[Lilsgjerd]

I know, I thought about it, but we were so busy that week that I didn't really have the time to talk with him, and when I did I was too nervous 😭 But I did interact with him a couple times in person and he was very sweet. I never reached out to him via social media though, I just asked for his social media mainly because I wanted a way to possibly contact people in the future. That's a good idea to ask him about it, especially because counselors have fun stories about how they got their names and it's pretty common for campers to ask for the backstory behind their names, so to speak. I'll definitely ask him about it if I see him next year when I'm a counselor myself!