Excerpts from My Week of Involuntary Insomnia as Cabin Leader at Outdoor Science Camp
Three sleepless nights, cowering in my bunk, awaiting the moment when ten little devils would erupt in a cascading rush of noise: first one whisperer, two whisperers, three whisperers, three talkers, six talkers, nine talkers, nine yellers, one good little boy who eventually succumbs to yelling as he forgets his sympathy for the sleeping teenager. Everyone yelling, bouncing, screaming, fighting. I boom, "Everyone go back to bed." "But he was talking, I was just"...I continue, "I don't need any explanations, I need silence. Everyone quiet at the end of this sentence." Some rustling, then silence, brief silence, broken minutes later as the cycle came back to the first whisperer. This was not truly a cycle, though. It had more the pattern of a bouncing ball. The first bounce, the highest bounce, followed by smaller and smaller succeeding bounces. Then eventually the ball stops. Eventually the noise stopped, but this moment came two hours before the kids woke up to begin the day--two hours where I had a chance to restore part of my sanity, but where I never succeeded. Then the day commenced...