Summer camp is supposed to be something like paradise. It’s a chance for children to escape their urban or suburban lifestyles and experience nature for a few weeks, as well as make lifelong friendships and maybe even build character. But anyone who’s been to summer camp knows it’s far from perfect. It’s hot, buggy, and uncomfortable. Those “friends” you’re supposed to make might turn out to be jerks, just like the people back home. And the only “character building” you’ll really do is realizing that you’re an indoor person.
The official anthem of summer camp misery has to be Allan Sherman’s iconic Camp Granada Song, aka “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh.” In it, a miserable camper writes a letter home to his parents, listing all the unpleasantness he’s been subjected to. But real-life children write these letters too, and they’re just as hilarious. There are so many examples online now that someone was able to create an entire Instagram account to share them, called Homesickdotcom.
Below are 15 letters from campers who can’t wait for summer vacation to be over.
1. When summer camp feels like prison camp.
2. S.O.S.
3. The negotiator.
4. Cold showers, hot emotions.
5. A child learns about poison ivy, and oversharing.
6. Not a happy camper.
7. Fill in the blank.
8. Pretty sure he didn’t learn that in arts & crafts.
9. That’s a sh*tty situation.
10. She just needs her space.
11. Cry me a river.
12. The paper connoisseur.
13. We’re long past “Mom” and “Dad.”
14. Call me maybe?
15. Careful, kid. That makes it premeditated.
h/t: Buzzfeed