1) Though I have been on camps by myself before and even to ones knowing nothing and nobody prior to attending, they were leader camps where we were running kids programs so we got to know each other while working side by side. Also they were ALL 18 to 25 and NONE of them had children so one could converse for more then 5 minutes without interruption or distraction.
2) I had only been to the church meeting 6 times before so I had not met many people before. Because they all seemed to have been at the church for 1000 yrs, and I am not the shy and retiring type, I met lots of people who came to find out who I was. This is really good and the reason I was so keen to go, a wise person once said "You can achieve in relationships in one weekend at church camps what takes 6 months of Sunday meetings to achieve." However it does become tiring to constantly do the 20 questions conversation.
3) I did not have any family there, and I only knew one family there for more then one or two weeks. If I stayed close to them, that restricts my movement and socialness and also puts a burden on their family.
I spent all of Saturday meeting new people and meeting kids and doing creche and listening to talks and wandering around finding people to talk too and playing board games and by dinner time I was tired. I sat at a table feeling lonely in a crowd and wishing that a mum or a sister was here so that I could not be by myself and not have to do anything so tiring and find stuff out about people. I realized that in spite of convincing myself otherwise, tears were on their way so I went and hid somewhere for a private cry. I was SO tired of not knowing anyone.
On my way to my dorm in search of a hanky, I came across a couple I had met the week before who sat with me and were VERY nice and looked after me beautifully.
I now have much respect for the single people who went to our church camps without their families because I told them church camps were really good.
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