4 Chapter Four

'Camp Noelle aims to bring together young children and ignite their creativity. Nestled by a serene lakeside on the eastern coast, this camp will be a perfect trip to completely detach yourself from the worries of the world.

You come here with a chaotic mind, but rest assured, during the course of these 6 days, you won't feel alone. You won't feel lonely. Our activities are planned in a way that fit every personality type and forces you to reach out of your comfort zone.

There is art, music, dance, nature… friends. What else could a person need in order to be happy?

By the time you return, you will be a changed person. And changed for the better.

We look forward to welcoming you at the campsite. Memories of the lifetime await you here.'

The more I stare at the prospect in front of me, the more it drags me towards itself. It's like the forces of nature have somehow tried their best to comply with my peaceful longing. And all of a sudden, I feel compelled to give this opportunity a try. It's drawing me in.

This sounds interesting.

I take out my phone and look up images of the campsite. And no doubt, the sight is breathtaking. Perhaps one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. But I haven't travelled around much so anything that isn't a concrete mess is automatically and instinctively beautiful to my longing eyes.

I am longing for peace.

I wonder if this is the opportunity I need in order to be sanguine again…

Perhaps, yes.

In an attempt to make plans out of this opportunity that has been presented in front of me, I call up Kevin. Only then do I notice the time. It's 12:41am. I have been sitting here, doing nothing for three hours.

It's too late to call but I know him. He'll be watching some show. My suspicions confirmed as he answers after three rings.

"Yo, what's up?"

"Hey, sorry to have called so late, but I was wondering if you were planning on going to the camp that the teacher announced today? I just looked up the prospect and it does interest me, to say the least."

"Well, I haven't actually gone through it yet. But I don't think I will need to since you've already done that for me, and I trust your judgment. We are going!" He says with such confidence that I am almost envious of him for a second before pitying my own existence.

"Sounds like a deal to me. See you tomorrow." And we hang up.

Kevin is not someone without confidence. Instead, he chooses to only show it when it's needed. He is very smart with his actions. I am so glad he found me and practically adopted me after the whole break up situation last year. He hasn't left my side since then and made sure I was okay throughout. I don't have to pretend in front of him at all. I can be myself and cry for hours over life and he'd be fine with that.

Honestly, Kevin is the kind of friend people need. But because of his quiet persoanltuy, he is often also the guy who people don't notice and lose out on.

Well, just my good luck then.

Kevin leads a very normal life and that's the most exciting part about him. But unfortunately, leading a normal life is often considered to be boring. Nobody wants mundane anymore. This is the 21st century. Of course, the idea of a normal, routine life was left far behind in the 19th century Victorian England. And the concept of bowing down to the modalities doesn't exist at all now. It makes me wonder, is it because everybody is dying to do something that will be remember ed for centuries to come? Like Edgar Allan Poe, or maybe Jane Austen, whose precious works see the dawn of the day and will continue to do so for centuries to come.

People don't want to live a normal life anymore. It's like, the bar for a good life is set so high that everybody is always looking out to do something exceptional. And while they are at it, they completely miss the phase of going through years of robust modelling that could of help them lead an exceptional life.

And while the number of people wanting to settle down with normal is exponentially declining, the number of people who end up crestfallen because they fail to impress themselves with their exceptional expectations are ever-rising. And while more and more people are inclining towards doing something extra-ordinary, they fail to see that the mire they try to be exceptional, the more they fall back into the same category, like thousand others. The more they become normal.

Agh! I am doing it again.

Thinking about things that make no sense.

I just want to be at peace. I want to be carefree. But that's also something that's the most difficult to do. But again, nothing worth possessing ever came in easy. That being said, it need not necessarily mean that you must struggle for every piece of happiness that comes your way. Or you must move mountains for an ounce of momentary comfort. Should you? Is a moment's happiness worth a million painful seconds of chase?

However, I am hopeful that one day, this raging ache inside my burning and crumbling heart will wither away and I will be able to be as fresh as the crushing ocean waves. I am confident.

But for now, I must try to make peace with the way I am. The best way to deal with that is by making a cup of tea and watching a romcom on my broken Samsung.