Orel Family

Aaron at the airport, on the way to Ramah Outdoor Adventure When I was 10, I went away to summer camp for the first time.  It was a 7-week boys camp near New London, New Hampshire, called Camp Sunapee.  I didn't really want  to go to sleepaway camp.  In A Christmas Story  the younger brother Randy is introduced with, "Every family has a kid who won't eat."  In my family, that was me.  I think I survived that summer mostly on bread sandwiches and Hershey's Almond Chocolate bars.  We also had a counselor from Switzerland who taught soccer and took me sailing on a butterfly, and who introduced me to this amazing thing called Lindt Milk Chocolate that was even better than Hershey's.  I shot a rifle, went to a dance at a girls camp, occasionally saw my older brother who was a 2nd year Sunapee camper, and... well, I didn't really like  that summer's camp experience all that much, in the end, but from that year on I was away at camp every s...

When I was in my final year of high school, I witnessed a sexual assault.  At a trip to a model UN, in a hotel room.  The perpetrator, like me, was a high school senior; I had known him since we were 4.  The victim was 15; I'd known her for several years, as well.  The party was an excuse for us seniors to drink legally a lot in a famous New York City hotel (the drinking age in New York was just 17 at the time).  The girl shouldn't have been there... but she was, and had had too much.  He took advantage, forcing her hands to place where they shouldn't have been.  I could process what was happening, but not what to do about it.  I froze.  Pretended I didn't see.  When he got up to get more drinks, I collected myself... and her.  "You need to get out of here.  I'm escorting you to your room now."  I wasn't exactly proud of myself, just a bit relieved that it was over.  None of us ever spoke about it again. I have spen...