Thanks for your thoughts, AlwaysRejoice. Sorry that your experience with girl scouts wasn't as positive as mine. I do remember one time, when I was in 4th grade, we went "camping". For our troop camping meant spending a weekend in a lodge that might as well have been an unstaffed hotel; we weren't very outdoorsy...We did have to make our own food, however. At this point in my life, I was fascinated by cooking, but my mom wouldn't let me near the stove because I was "too young". I really hoped to be assigned to help make lunch or dinner, which entailed actually working in the kitchen. But instead I was assigned to the breakfast shift, and I didn't get to do anything other than stuff some granola bars into paper bags. I was so disappointed, lol. Also on that trip I had a night where I had a headache and the other girls weren't interested in my poems. Funny what constitutes a bad night in then versus now terms...

And then 6th grade came, and depression started creeping up on me. I thought all of the other girls, along with everyone else, hated me for no reason. Memory is interesting. For me at least, unless I am really low, I find it calming to reflectively go through it all, good and bad.

I also sometimes wish that we could be as open in real life as we are here. I think I'd be a lot less lonely.