Hi there! My name is Bella and this will be my 7th year coming back to camp! I am so so stoked to return to the woodchips this summer and give back to a community that I have gotten so much from 🙂 But before we meet by the campfire circle, here’s a little bit about me!

I hail from Marin County, CA, a place just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. I grew up spending much of my time searching the beach for fossilized sand dollars, exploring small creeks, and roaming the trails of Mt Tam, things I still spend time doing today. I’ve been extremely lucky to live in a place surrounded by so much nature, and I am so ready to immerse myself in the beautiful environment of Augusta again!

Mt. Tam

I’m an only child but I have essentially four parents and four pets. Both my parents are remarried and between my “two sets” of parents, I have a dog and two cats at my dad’s and a cat at my moms. All of them are very cute, but they leaves me asking myself a very serious question; am I a cat person or a dog person?

From left to right: my stepdad (Chris), my mom (Francesca), me,  my dad (Yann) and my stepmom (Karen).

Little Guy ^

Little guy and Oliroo

Georgie

Duke and a friend

` In school I have always naturally gravitated towards the more english/history/art classes (unfortunately no STEM for this girl!) I am a huge reader and if you have any book recommendations for me, please share! There isn’t much I won’t read…

I’ve grown my passion for photography over the years, so going out and exploring with my camera is one of my favorite pastimes.  I have taken photography in high school for the past three years, and hope to continue this as a side passion/hobby in the future. My photo teacher is also my art history teacher, and this year, I was able to take both classes! Art history is seriously so so cool and it’s something I hope to learn more about in the future. This spring break, I went on a school trip for art history and photo to Paris and Italy and we were able to see SO. MUCH. ART.

As the saying goes, life imitates art imitates life.

After this summer, I will be off to UCLA (University of California – Los Angeles)!  I will hopefully be exploring all sorts of topics and figuring out what I am passionate about and what I want to pursue. I am currently enrolled there with my major as international development, mostly because it sounds interesting to me due to its interdisciplinary and intercultural nature. I will be focusing on issues in developing countries and coming up with ways to help them, while also learning about different cultures, politics, and economies and how they all come together to form the world we live in today. I will also be pursuing a minor in social thought,  where I focus on the history of modern ideas from great thinkers and philosophers from the 17th-20th century. I’ve always loved learning about the ideas of thinkers like Nietzsche and Freud, so I think that through this minor, I’ll be gaining a really in depth understanding of their concepts.

During my time at UCLA, I hope to study abroad, which combines both my love for learning and travelling together! I love and value travelling so much and have been fortunate enough to be exposed to a wide variety of places, cultures and people,. I hold a French/American dual citizenship, because my dad is French, but I never learned how to speak it (something I want to learn in college). I can speak spanish fairly well, and speak it with my coworkers where I work, so if you want, practice with me if you know some! I especially love going to the National Parks and I was in the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone over the summer. It was BEAUTIFUL. (If you can’t tell by now, I love to be active and hike)

Yellowstone and Grand Tetons

Yellowstone

Circle

So coming back to the beginning of this long long page (kudos to you if you’re still here),  this is my 7th year returning to camp. I was a camper for five years, and last year, I participated in CIRCLE.Augusta is a second home to me, a place full of magic, spontaneity, connection, creation and growth, and this summer, I hope to create some memories of wish, wonder, and surprise with you!

Oh! And if you’re looking to know just a little more about me, here are some of my favorites 🙂

Five Lists of My Top Five

Movies

1. Secret Life of Walter Mitty
2. Call Me By Your Name
3. Some Like it Hot
4. Amelie
5. Roman Holiday

Musical Artists

1. St. Paul & the Broken Bones
2. Still Woozy
3. Nina Simone
4. Catfish and the Bottlemen
5. Jack Johnson

Books

1. The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
2. All The Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr
3. Harry Potter (of course! I’ve read the entire series about 18 times give or take….)
4. The Plague – Albert Camus
5. The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Art

1. The School of Athens – Raphael
2. The Saint Lazare Station – Claude Monet
3. Wanderer Above a Sea of Fog –  Caspar David Friedrich.
4. Apollo and Daphne – Bernini (Sculpture)
5. Scrovegni Chapel – Giotto

5 Random Things about Me

1. I have an unhealthy attachment to my water bottle and like to know where it is at all times. You’ll most likely hear me asking “where’s my water bottle??”
2. Mosquitoes love me – I guarantee by the end of the summer I will have 50+ bites.
3. When I cry, I will usually start to laugh and this equals = a mess
4. When I was younger I used to have a fear of getting dirty, but not anymore!
5. Yoga is something I’m starting to get into, so if you know some moves, teach me 🙂

My waterbottle!! There’s more stickers on it now

Attempting some yoga on the beach…