It was nearing the end of our week-long expedition on Ram Island. This was a small island the camp used in the Annisquam River that was surrounded by marsh. The counselors had challenged us to run the day since we had been complaining about how it was being run. Maeve our head counselor was British and was a hard ass. She kept pressing us to find out what our plan was. We had no idea what we were doing. We had gotten so used to being told what to do and when all of a sudden the roles changed it threw us all for a loop. I was a camper and I was supposed to be a leader. What? I was so used to following what my older sister did I felt especially thrown and a little perturbed they were doing this to us to prove a point. I kept waiting for ideas of what to do for the day to come to me but they didn’t come. Eventually when we were forced to do something we came up with an idea to row our dories to the beach for the day. We felt good about our decision even though she kept questioning it and what about lunch and what about the tides etc. I helped make lunch but I had no idea about the tides. We kept asking the counselor in training Allen what the tides were because he had his own boat and seemed savvy about the sea but he played along with the counselors and wouldn’t tell us.  We made like twenty peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and somehow managed to get ourselves ready to go. We were in charge of navigating the way there and back and timing everything to get the point of how hard it is to do it with a group. They were right. It already felt hard. We were already asking them for help. They didn’t let us fail so when we were about to make a mistake they told us. We made a lot of mistakes. For example we almost forgot to check the tides and we almost forgot to pack a lunch. We were all so relieved when we finally got to the beach and got to play in the sand and relax in the sun. We built castles and went swimming and goofed around like teenagers like to do. It felt fun to be one of the kids for once. I usually had to do chores and work like grown ups. When it was time to go we made our way back to the island relieved that our day of leading was almost over. “It’s not so easy is it?” Maeve bragged later. “Nooo!” We all agreed. That night we were much more grateful for all the counselors were doing when it came time for dinner and they did the cooking and we got to play capture the flag and tell ghost stories rather than have to worry about the cooking and the dishes. We helped out though of course. I helped with dishes that night and was so relieved that the next day we would not have to plan it again.