Simply Dazzling

“Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket, never let it go away...”

I’m back from camp but i still haven’t been able to decide whether I’m happy to be back or not. It was a very interesting experience and i learned many things...probably more than i have ever learned at any other camp i've ever been to. Basically, four days were too short.

I’ve always had the impression that seeing a shooting star is a once in a lifetime experience. Due to my strong liking for stars, i’ve always wanted to have the opportunity to lie down on the soft cool grass at night and watch a meteor shower. It’s always been a dream to me...a dream that i didn't think would ever come true.

The last night at camp, the sky was really clear and i was just drinking in the beauty of God’s creation. The sky was simply sprinkled with glittering beauties. I wish i knew the constellations. I would have been able to point them out simply because they were so clear. It was a real treat for me and that night couldn’t have been any better. The weather was simply beautiful and the air was pleasantly cool.

I was shocked at the first shooting star i saw. I didn’t really think i would see one, even though some of my friends had already announced that they had seen some. But I was pleasantly surprised, shocked, overwhelmed...

A shooting or falling star is not a star at all. It is not even a piece of a star. Stars are huge balls of burning gas sending off great amounts of energy in the form of light and heat. Stars are much bigger than our planet. Stars also do not fall; they stay in their own places in their own galaxies.

A falling star is actually a meteor. Meteors are streaks of light in the sky that we can see when a small speck of dust burns up high in the air above us. These specks of dust come from comets!

Astronomers call these pieces of comet dust "meteoroids." Meteoroids are usually smaller than a grain of sand and generally very small. Meteoroids hit the Earth's atmosphere at super high speed, sometimes faster than 90,000 miles per hour. The friction between the tiny meteoroid and the atmosphere creates the light that we recognize as a meteor (or "falling star"). The dust speck that burns up is called a meteoroid. The flash of light is called a meteor. Meteors usually last just a second or two.

It is important to recognize and be able to see the beautiful things that are right before your eyes, even if they appear simple and normal at first. Even something as normal as stars can have such a marvelously strong impact on me.

On the second day of camp, i started getting a sore throat. At first, i thought it was because of the overuse of my voice due to the fact that i was the leader of my group; but as the day went on, i realized that it was actually the water that was making my throat feel so weird.

Now, the first few people i mentioned this to thought i was nuts, but hear me out. Water has different textures. There is soft water and hard water. Here is something i found on the net:

Every water has a flavor and a texture, leaving its own distinctive signature on the palate. The texture comes from the level of mineral "hardness" or "softness". Mouthfeel (the texture of the sensations on the palate) is partly determined by the "hardness" of the water. It is measured by the quantities of dissolved solid matter; this includes the salts in the water and suspended minerals.Certain kinds of minerals in water can be healthful. Minerals are catalysts that trigger chemical reactions and make water taste sweeter.

So water has different levels of sweetness too, but i won’t go there just yet.

So there you go, my throat was getting soar because i wasn’t used to the texture of water. It was actually rough on my throat. To prove my point, my throat is already getting better since I’ve gotten home. Weird huh?

This camp was full of surprises and this has definitely been one of the most memorable camps I have ever gone for.