How To Fake A Broken Ankle
Here’s a summer story for you. I tell it because firstly, I know many of you have similar anecdotes of your own and second, I want us to remember how often people used to make kids do things against their will for very little reason at all. Last night, my favorite two-year-old and her mother came over and she taught me a new song she learned at “summer camp.” The song is all about boundaries and is a safe and easy way for small children to tell grownups to fuck off. It was a moment of immense gratitude for me. Finally, as a species, we might be doing things right.
I went to real summer camp. A month-long sleepaway camp and because I was an absolute viking, it was a three-hour flight (not drive!) from my home. It was also the most Jewish and Zionist indoctrinating effort ever attempted, but boy was that shit fun. In addition to normal summer camp activities like compulsory sports, useless swimming lessons, and lavish pranks orchestrated by older kids, we also chose one extra activity from a list of options. I was a 12-year-old girl in the 90s. I chose dance.