OH! Hello there!
I’m Lizzie, full name Lizard (or Elizabeth, if you ask my parents), and I’m beyond excited to be back at Camp Augusta this summer! This is actually my sixth year here, and I’m so grateful to be able to return to the woodchips and the world the inspired my love of play, connection, joy, making a fool of myself, and dressing up in silly costumes.
Oh? What’s that? You want to know a little bit more about me? Well, here you go!
I was born in California where I lived for most of my childhood (save for a bit around age 10 when I lived in the UK, but we’ll get back to that). As a baby, I don’t think I did much, but my memory of the time is pretty foggy. I do know that I enjoyed clapping my feet rather than my hands. I think I still can, but we’ll see. As I grew older, I was obsessed with dogs, wanted my clothes to have as many pockets as possible, and was a big fan of reading any book I could get my hands on.
To be completely honest I haven’t changed that much (except height wise, and I no longer have a bowl cut), as seen in the side by side photos below, referencing my love for bread products.
When high school rolled around, I found my love of rowing, and did so for four years, cultivating an amazing community of friends while learning a lot about myself, what I could do, and about the meaning of hard work. (See below a picture of me with my friends after running the Bay to Breakers 12k, which we did annually as a team).
High school was also a time that I found an amazing group of friends, with whom I was able to be myself, to find my love of humor, to not complain every time I walked up a hill (you can thank them as we go up Oak hill every day), and also learned that I’m a bad dancer (I don’t care though, you’ll still see me busting out my awful moves). Even though I don’t see them everyday anymore, they still always make time to call me and remind me not only how much I love them but also how bad I’m not as funny as I think I am (don’t worry though, I will laugh at my own jokes).
I graduated high school in 2017, and after that I took a month and a half to Eurail around Europe with my best friend is the whole world, Emily.
Our trip took us to London, Paris, Strasbourg, Munich, Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Brussels, and did lots of stupid things like forgetting my passport on the way to the airport, misbooking hostel dates, not booking train tickets, and not learning a single word of Hungarian, and therefore accidentally taking a Hungarian water aerobics class where we did not understand what was happening and all of the elderly ladies started laughing at us. On the plus side, we did have loads of super yummy desserts, so it evens out?
Thankfully, that was not the end of my time in Europe, as I just finished my first year studying English Literature at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland (playing off of both my childhood love of reading and also the time I spent there as a kid). A lot of people ask me hey, Lizzie, why did you do that, what prompted you to leave the United States of America and move 6,000 miles and 8 time zones away? And, to be honest, there is no good reason. I just kind of sat down one day, said to myself hey that would be cool, applied, got in, and then did it. And, to be honest, it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I learned an amazing amount about how to cook at least 4 food items, how much vegetables cost, how to take care of myself, how to cook a full turkey (and that you can’t fit 2 in an oven at the same time, and if you don’t have a contingency plan you may have to run half a mile through the streets of Edinburgh with a turkey resting on a bed of vegetables to your friends house to put it in her oven), and also about 5 million other lessons that have made me into a functional human being. I also became a committee member for Baking Society and Buddhist Society, which have both been amazing experiences.
Here’s some photos of my time at uni:
So there I am! And now I can’t wait to spend another summer on the woodchips, never put on close toed shoes if I can help it, teach you to make candles/wire jewellery/embroidery/so many other crafts, get you up Tiny Swing, remind you to stay hydrated, wear the silliest things I can find in the costume closet, laugh with you, learn about you, and have an amazing session!
Additionally:
DO YOU KNOW JIU JITSU? DO YOU PLAY THE BANJO? ARE YOU REALLY GOOD AT AERIAL YOGA? CAN YOU DO ALL THREE? ARE YOU WILLING TO TEACH ME THESE SKILLS?
EXCELLENT! THEN YOU MIGHT BE A FIT FOR MY NEW CLINIC, AERIAL BANJITSU, HOPEFULLY RUNNING SUMMER 2019! PLEASE CONTACT ME IF YOU FIT ANY OF THESE CRITERIA!