D ear Counselor
When we sit down to play a “getting to know you” game on the first night of camp you won’t learn much about me. Sure you’ll find out how many siblings I have my favorite color my preferred brand of toothpaste and all the other details that are oh-so-integral to my identity as a camper. But nothing more than that.
A few days will pass and you’ll be certain that you have figured me out; after all I cannot hide. I’m that jolly self-deprecating fat girl the one that’s necessary for every camp story the one that fits every happy-go-lucky fat-girl stereotype that you’ve ever heard.
I cannot hide my body but my body hides my pain my secrets.
When they train you before camp telling you warning signs to look out for they will teach you about disappearing bodies warn you to watch for shrinking frames. They will not mention anything about bodies that grow larger even as the person shrinks increasingly inside herself; they will not tell you that a large body can hide that it grows bigger to accommodate the secrets it harbors.
