Greece, I will never forget you

 It has always been rather tough for one like me, shy and often misplaced, always sitting gatherings out by the corner of everybody’s eyes, to get properly acquainted with strangers in a natural and fun way. I don’t know whether the impression I make on others is ever strong enough or too strong and I have always tried to be reserved and ‘play it safe’, so to speak. Whenever I choose to initiate a conversation or get to know someone else, I pick my words carefully and I make it through; however, if I am faced with an unexpectedly difficult situation, completely on my own, I start to panic at the thought of coming across as weird to every single person I am about to meet. That is the protagonist of the story that is about to follow – a true tale of how I had exited my comfort zone entirely for the first time in my life and how it changed me.

Many years ago, right before I first set foot inside high school, my parents arranged for me to go on a trip to Greece with over fifty other pupils from other schools around town. It was expensive but it was supposed to be lots of fun. I was petrified. Immediately I said no, I can’t do something like that by myself, I don’t know anybody there. How would I fit in? What would I even do there? – I’m not even the fun type. My mother tried her best to reassure me, but I was still far too anxious, but there was no way of telling my mom “no” for she had always been stubborn in the highest form of superlative. Thus, I was to go no matter what, and so I did.

This fun trip to Greece included hundreds of kids from all over Europe, an impressive camp filled with football and basketball fields, tennis and volley courts, pools and houses (it even had a gorgeous panoramic view of the sea). That’s what they advertised to us when we showed up to sign me up and pay for the vacation. “It sounds nice” is all I could say, but deep inside I was still just a scaredy cat, fearing the worst that could possibly come. The room my parents and I were in was very bright and full of kids and their respective parents, which I think overstimulated me to the point I began to shake a bit.

“All good. You’ll be leaving Friday, next week. Hopefully we’ll have fun. See you there, people!”

Then it was settled – I was really going to Greece with a bunch of other guys and girls I’ve never met in my life, most of them older than me by the way, and I was sure it would not go well whatsoever. At the very least, apparently someone from my mom’s workplace had also signed their son up for it too, so I wasn’t really all by myself. Still, I had never met the guy, although my parents swear we played together when we were younger and we were both at the office. To this day I cannot recall such a thing, but let’s carry on.

The story truly begins on the departure’s day, when we all got together and lined up to get inside the bus that will drive us to Greece. We looked for this kid I guess I was supposed to know and recognized, and when we found him and his father, I met this big-boned boy with glasses just like me, just with wavier hair and a lot more appetite for speech. We hadn’t clicked right off the bat. We were friendly to each other and tried to crack a couple of jokes to lighten to mood, as our parents were starting to worry about the length of the road trip and whether or not we’d be safe and how we were going to contact them once we’d arrived in Greece, which is not at all what I was personally concerned about. After ten more minutes it was time for us to be seated and leave the country. I obviously sat next to the window to stare at the sights and not have to look at anyone else and I plugged in my headphones and started listening to music, while this kid, who we’ll be referring to as Poe, was just sitting next to me silently, eating his snacks. Not long after our departure he started listening to his own music as well. We did not talk much on our way there, and that was fine by me. The bus took about 16 uncomfortable hours to get to Greece. Unfortunately, my phone battery did not last that long, so by the time night fell I had no more music, so it was just me looking through the window at shadowy figures of buildings and trees, sitting next to Poe who was asleep. So, I couldn’t help but overhear others talking in the background – to be more precise, overhear the guys in the back talking because, like in any class at any school ever, the kids in the back were the only ones talking. They all already got to know one another and gathered around to tell scary stories since it was nighttime and there was nothing cooler for an eighth grader to talk about when parents aren’t around. I spent the entire night eavesdropping on them and their stories; it was fairly interesting, but I mostly listened because I could not fall asleep on a moving vehicle.

The next day we had a few stops before we made it to the resort, one of which was by the sea because we were going to take the ferry to the island Thasos, where the camp was located. Poe talked a little to me. He seemed nervous as well, but much more eager to get there and have fun. During the stop right before the ferry, we both watched the sea waves in silence until he got bored and wandered off. I noticed him trying to talk to the older kids, but he found it hard to fit in – who would’ve thought? I remained by myself when a strange encounter happened. One of the other kids, a member of the friend group which had been made the night before in the back, came over to me. He was really tall, as if him being a complete stranger was not already enough to intimidate me. This person only asked me if I’m okay because I look super nervous, and then he left. That made me laugh for some reason, laughter had been my only response before he went to his friends. I thought I messed it up somehow and everyone already thought I was weird, and my phone wasn’t working either so I could not get ahold of any loved one; it felt like I was stranded, and I hadn’t even gotten to the island yet. The blue waters suffocated me even though I was on shore, so I watched it lose its color when the ferry came and all I could see were white reflections. We got on and went to the deck. The others were happy to be on a boat and gaze at the sea, with flying little thieves around us (seagulls looking to snatch our snacks), but I was still kind of paralyzed. Kids around me joked and laughed, so I laughed with them. In half an hour we made it to the island, got back on the bus. “Straight to the camp!” I heard, followed by an orchestra of woo’s and other excited noises.

I complained to Poe for a bit about how my phone had been dead and I couldn’t do much of anything, but he wasn’t that supportive. He had been eavesdropping on the cool kids the way I had done the night before. That annoyed me so much I thought I would stop talking to him altogether. Then we arrived. Even the scaredy cat in me thought the camp was awesome, though I was still uptight and nervous. We were showed to our little houses where our rooms were – two rooms in the boys’ house, two rooms in the girls’ house – and we negotiated who slept with who. I got lucky to get picked by the cool kids to be in their room for a reason unbeknown to me (short sideline: when I mention “the cool kids” I actually mean they were cool, not just popular) and we all got in and greeted each other. There wasn’t much of an introduction because most of them had already got acquainted. We were supposed to get ready to go to the beach. Everyone was on their bunkbeds, there weren’t more than four walls and a bathroom, so we had to change our clothes together at the same time. Then, one of the older guys said “Who hides their you-know-what is a coward!”, and I guess we all complied. I laughed again, as that was my only medicine, and proceeded to get naked and change. Don’t worry, reader, this isn’t a story about how somebody checked me out while changing outfits, everyone was cool and mature about it. It was only the first day. I also tried to charge my phone ever so slightly to use it again and call my parents, but no use.

The rest of the day was pretty boring. The beach was amazing, the sun was burning, the sea laid before me in shades of blue I had never seen before, and I mostly stood on the sand to read a book I had taken with me. However, the guys forced me to get in the water with them as well. Things were starting to get easier, not much but still significant for someone like me.

Night came again, our evening was over. We had gotten back to the resort, changed and gone to the cafeteria to eat. That’s where we met all the people from across the globe. I mean, they met all those people, I was just there eating. But I exchanged a couple of jokes with Poe and the taller guy who’d checked on me earlier that day. I had once again complained about my phone not working, plugged it in and it would still not charge, when Poe literally slapped it as hard as (I think) he could, to which my phone responded with actually working. That cracked both me and the other guy up so much, we couldn’t stop laughing. We had had quite some fun before returning to our rooms, which was unbelievable to me.

The three of us ditched everyone else, again for a reason unbeknown to me, and sneaked outside to look at the sea. It was very dark so we couldn’t see anything, but we talked, and this guy talked mostly to me. We clicked. Let’s call him Liam. Poe started sucking up to Liam because he was much cooler than us and, now evidently to me, he was desperate for attention. Liam called Poe out for it and made so much fun of it, both my butt and stomach wouldn’t stop hurting from all the laughter, it was hilarious. Liam asked me about myself and for once I actually opened up and introduced myself naturally. I told him I’m passionate about writing lyrics and singing and he unexpectedly resonated with that a lot because he had the same interests, luckily. We then talked about music and our failing love-lives and we truly connected. I showed him some of my songs which he liked, he showed me some of his that he wrote, and on that day we decided to collaborate on something. Then, out of nowhere, the power got cut off and the lights went out, so we had to blindly stumble our way back to our house and our room. That night Liam got me talking to all the cool kids and we all had fun talking about the most random of stuff and pranking each other. A cursed rule became active in our little home – anybody who fell asleep would mandatorily get pranked. So, I did not sleep.

Next morning I finally managed to call my parents and I told them about the fun I had. Even they were surprised, happily of course. The day started with more beach time. This time around, we stayed for longer, and I was much more active. There was a modest shack-like store that served sandwiches as well, situated not far from where we were staying on the beach, so I would go there a lot to buy drinks and snacks. There I met a gorgeous native woman who spoke pretty good English. I was once again shy towards someone, but I managed to talk to her more and more easily as time passed. By the final time I had gone to buy myself something from there, I even held a conversation with her. I can’t remember what it was about, but I still feel proud about it. Liam also came over to me and offered me a friendship rock. The cool kid got me a rock of friendship. Unbelievable.

That evening we had a blast, partying and staying up late, like we were about to do every night. At the camp we made a Turkish friend who didn’t even know English that well. I can’t explain how, it’s just European telepathy. Some of the guys also managed to sneak out and get drunk, but I stayed in with the rest. Once the cool people were out of the picture, suddenly I became the coolest one around – everyone laughed and enjoyed everything I would say, Poe would have no one to suck up to anymore so he would have to listen to me and whatever I said would go. I had not foreseen that in two days I would eventually be making the rules for others, but here we were. We played some football once everybody got back, someone got inside the girls' room somehow (I assume you know what for), and the music was so loud that even our guide and other guides from different countries came over to ask us to stop. When it got quieter, my anxious thoughts crept back in my brain, but the cool kids making fun of Poe got me joyous again.

We ended up trying a bit of everything during our stay on the Thasos Island. The food wasn’t great, but the company was. On the last day Liam beat Poe with a banana (a memory I will cherish forever) and stole a watch from an inland jewelry shop on our way back. I sat next to him and the rest of the popular kids in the back on the bus. However, I lost the rock of friendship from Liam on the ferry for I surrendered to my awful exhaustion and fell asleep with the rock in my pocket. By the time we were off the boat I realized it was missing.

I spent eight days in Greece, I got out of my comfort zone and had the most fun I’ve ever had, I made a new friend whom I still talk to even today, I met a bunch of strangers from Italy, Turkey, Germany and evidently Greece, and I managed to be the single person not to have fallen victim to a prank during our whole stay there. That last one required a huge lack of sleep which is the reason when I got back, I lied dormant for almost 20 hours. Also, not more than a month later, I met up with Liam, we spent the night together and made three songs. Sometimes I wish I could go back to Greece, to be with all those people and have such a heavenly time again, but I’m sure another life-changing trip out of my comfort zone is waiting on the horizon. Until then, I can say I am happy not to have bailed out back then, in fear of being awkward meeting so many strangers all on my own, because those strangers helped me have a special time I am still grateful for.