~Marco Racanelli, Class of 2024 

We finally arrived at Windsor Mountain. I already knew this was going to be a long 2 days at this camp. How was I supposed to forget about my phone? Activities. Activities were supposed to make us “forget” about our phones for the next 2 days? Our 8th grade class was on a trip in New Hampshire at a camp called Windsor mountain for a so-called “bonding experience”. “Mr.Romero’s group, you guys have music.” 

Music? I already didn’t want to do these activities and our advisory got MUSIC?!?!? That couldn’t be worse! My advisory could have gotten sports, or high ropes, or anything else, and we got music. I already don’t like being away from home for long and they were forcing us to do MUSIC! Little did I know that if I just kept an open mind when trying something new I would enjoy it.

Then I thought to myself that at least this activity is only for an hour and not longer, so let’s get this over with. Our group walked up to the counselors. They took our attendance and they gathered us up on the deck in a circle. “We are going to be playing a game called Bob the Weasel. There is a person in the middle who has to guess where the weasel is.” Ok simple enough I thought to myself, but where is the music? We walked up a stairwell to finally get to the music room. This is where we got split into groups for a Battle of the Bands. Battle of the Bands??? What are we, in the 1980s? 

The groups were Romir, Eben and me, against Buggy, Alex, Van and Ethan. Romir plays piano so he chose a piano since that’s his favorite. Me and Eben don’t play any instruments so we just grabbed whatever we felt like playing. I grabbed a bongo and Eben grabbed an instrument that you sit on and bang. Romir would start by playing a few notes, then I would join in and play the same thing, then Eben would join in. We played for a bit while being in harmony – bom, bom, bom! Then Romir would end it with a solo – dun, dun, dum, ba, dum, dum! While we were practicing we heard Buggy and his group screaming a song at the top of their lungs in the room below us.

Now it was time for the battle. Buggy’s group was first. They were named the Midnight Emos, and we were the Gigantic Cows. Buggy’s song was a spectacle of perfection besides the fact that Van and Alex were dying of laughter the whole time while performing. We also had a marvelous song. It didn’t have any vocals like Buggy’s but despite that I would say it was pretty top-notch. The judges talked about our performances and they voted on who had the better song. They only took 15 seconds to decide but it felt like it took forever. Was I really starting to care about this activity?  “For the 2023 Battle of the Bands, the winner is… Gigantic Cows!!” I didn’t think we would win. Buggy’s song was really funny so I thought they had us, but in the end, the judges thought we were better. That was actually entertaining. Even though I thought the music activity was going to be a horrendous waste of time, it turned out not to be so crummy in the end.

Even though I thought music was probably going to be terrible and boring, over the course of the activity it got more and more entertaining. Music actually made me forget about my phone, and that we wouldn’t have it for the next couple of days. I thought I would be praying for it back the whole time with how boring music was probably going to be. But in the end, music ended up being one of my favorite activities. The lesson I learned was that I should keep an open mind when trying something new and I might just enjoy it.