As my time with P-CREW has passed by, my mental health has changed a whole lot from the me two weeks ago. Let’s say that it is June 17, 2018. On this day, I had to leave my house for a couple hours so people could look at it, however I still spent the rest of the day back at home either on my phone, or on the computer. This was one day prior to leaving for P-CREW for a month. Now, June 29, I of course feel different from then, and I think going over my experience and giving a few tips may be helpful.

First off, I’ll talk about general homesickness. For the past 11 days, I’ve had pretty bad homesickness. I want all of you to know that it is most definitely hard to leave home for a long time, especially if it’s your first time. It’s really hard to be at home 24/7, then suddenly you are far away without anyway of contacting your family. For some it is easy to just “let go”, but I personally can’t. What helps is when I think of how proud my family and friends will be when I come back. I also think of my bed, and the familiar smells of my house, to keep me going.

Another thing I’d like to talk about is hygiene. I don’t know about everyone else, but at least for me, I have a hard time letting go of my daily hygiene routines at home. Going from a daily shower at home, to rarely ever having the chance to shower was extremely difficult for me mentally/physically. This may seem like an overreaction but trust me, for a girl with long, curly hair it is not fun. What I do to try and upkeep my personal hygiene is brush my teeth and hair twice a day, and I also use baby wipes to get as much dirt off as I can. It’s not much, but it helps.

The final thing I want to talk about is personal time/space. This is one of the hardest things to adjust to because when you camp in a group of people there is no time to yourself. Imagine how hard that is for people new to camping, to be around 13 people all the time. I know for the rest of this session that I won’t have any privacy. At first it was nice to be around so many new faces but now it is starting to get difficult, only because I am used to being alone. But still, I’m glad I’ve gotten to know people, and even though it is hard it is worth it.

Written by Stella Miller for Project Spotlight: Summertime with PCREW.