A friend of mine is looking into Summer Camps for her children. One of them is interested in going to a weight-loss camp because she’s, for her age/height, is approximately 40 pounds overweight. I know how hard that can be for a child but for a 12 year-old to already have body issues kind of scares me. The media plays too much of a role in children’s lives. Everyone wants to be as thin as Paris Hilton or as pretty as one of those other over-paid alcoholic celebrities that will remain nameless.

It’s kind of a shame for her to be this depressed about herself but this is something I know all too well. I’ve always been a fat kid. I was never as large as I am now, I was the chubby girl in grade school, the even more chubby girl in junior high and by the time I stepped into my senior year I was just plain obese. It’s good to know that she’s changing her path, I just wish her the best of luck and hope she doesn’t go into this with high expectations. A girl I went to school with went to a weight-loss camp in upstate New York, I’m unsure of the name at the moment but she went into it thinking she’d drop maybe 15 pounds at most. She came home about 35 pounds lighter. Unfortunately all the fat she’d lost kind of shifted to her head and all of a sudden she was just too good for me. But, moving right along.

While her daughter is greatly anticipating her $10,000 camp; her son, however, has always been a bookworm and science fanatic. He’s interested in going to a camp that’s more education than physical fitness. Sure, either way both of these children (they’re twins by the way) would like to spend the summer in the woods but both of them would like to take this route for completely different reasons.

I just wish both of them the best of luck and hope that they learn something new this summer that they can take with them for the rest of their lives.