Now that I’ve had a few week to process and digest everything Camp Tazo, I’m feeling optimistic for the future. Camp Tazo was an adult camp sponsored by Tazo tea and hosted by Rupaul’s Drag Race Legend and Dancing Queen, Alyssa Edwards. The camp was designed to help 30 campers step outside of their comfort zone by participating in multiple activities that pretty much forced you to. There were laughs, there were tears, and of course there were stunning looks. We had all the ingredients to build a real, supportive communiTEA and we did!
I felt the love from day 1. I landed in San Antonio exhausted and low key annoyed due to losing one of my checked bags. Don’t worry, it wasn’t the bag that contained all my fabulous looks. It was the bag that had everything else (my underwear, socks, hoodies, makeup, a steamer). I was greeted by Nicoletta, our head camp counselor upon arriving to hotel Valencia Riverwalk. She was looking like a straight up “Cheetalicious” Cheetah Girl who served all the Sass. We joked about losing my bag and how i would have to “free-ball” it over the weekend which I was ok with. I wasn’t about to let this ruin my weekend. I quickly got ready and rushed out to a gay bar called “Heat” to meet up with the other campers. I was a little nervous walking in because everyone had already bonded earlier that day so I thought I was going to be left out. Surprisingly, everyone was excited to see me there. I first connected with Navil, cancer is present in her life so we immediately were able to relate to each others struggles. I then introduced myself to everyone that I could until I saw Marc. Marc was one of the campers I connected with prior to making the trip so I was excited to see him. He was watching the queens perform from the first row and with no dollar bills in hand. I quickly pulled out my wallet, handed him some ones and demanded that he tip these queens! I think we were attached at the hip from that moment on. More things happened that night but nothing too exciting. Just Lucy, getting into what we thought was a random car while the rest of the gang ended up dancing with partially naked go-go dancers. I’ll let the other campers spill the tea with that.
Emily, Marc, Nicoletta and I at a rest stop on our way to Camp Tazo
The next morning Marc and I went to Walgreens to grab necessities to replace the ones inside my lost luggage. It was nice to wake up before the other campers and take a stroll along the Riverwalk, one of San Antonio’s attractions. I’m convinced myself that a scene from “Selena” was filmed on a bridge looking over the water there. After breakfast, we all gathered together in a room where our head counselor, Nicoletta, gave a pep talk to hype everyone up for the trip. Nicoletta was just full of positive energy which I was obsessed with. I could listen to her talk all day! We all boarded this school bus and were on our way to the middle of the effin’ woods. About an hour and a half into our road trip, we pulled over at this abandoned gas station where we were introduced to Skinny, an improv character who was a roadie that hitch hiked, told stories and carried a cooler. He certainly knew how to make us laugh with the many metaphors and analogies relating to a can of vienna sausage. Finally, we pulled into Camp Tazo where we met Brady, another camp counselor who was full of knowledge and words of wisdom. He told us where the bathrooms were and where to meet after getting off the bus. Getting off that school bus was like walking into a new world of acceptance and community. It was a little chilly, but only because I was in shorts (Remember, I only have my “looks” bag so my outfits were limited). We played a quick ice breaker game where we had to interact with campers we didn’t already know. This gave us the opportunity to get a sense of everyone’s personalities. We also had an insanely quick and epic tournament of Rock, Paper, Scissors which forced us to scream and root for the final two once you were eliminated. At that time, we were encouraged to sit down, have lunch and mingle with each other until they were ready to send us to our next activity.
For the sake of boring you and to avoid rushing this story, I’m going to stretch this blog over a few posts. I found that my writing tends to get sloppy towards the end because I just want to finish the piece. But I’m not going to do that here. So tune in next week to read more about my journey during Camp Tazo!
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