Unfiltered Story #293078

Every year, a handful of feeder schools in my area bring their seventh-graders to a “science camp” meant to get us students familiar with each other before we go to high school. It’s three days of fun, relationships are formed, and I’ve never met anyone who regretted attending. However, one fantastic story did come out of it, relayed to me by the unfortunate victim of circumstances, who later became my best friend.

My friend received a packet from her teacher along with everyone else in her class with information about the camp—maps, cabin rosters, schedules, that kind of thing. She finds her name on one of the cabin rosters, but doesn’t look too closely at the rest of the names. When the bus stops at the camp, she grabs her luggage and heads towards her assigned cabin, using the map for guidance. However, she doesn’t look too closely at the people finding their cabins around her, either.

She finds the cabin just fine and opens the door, wanting to stash her luggage and start exploring before activities start up, but when she opens the door and every single eye turns to her, something is wrong. The cabin is full of boys and in the middle is a male counselor.

Amid much confusion, my friend shows the counselor her name on the cabin roster. The problem? Her first name is unisex, and despite the feminine spelling, the organizer had misjudged her gender when making the rosters.

The counselor gets her an emergency transfer to a girls’ cabin, which I happen to be in. That afternoon she regales me with the story. It’s funny to think that I might never have met my best friend—now my girlfriend—if someone hadn’t mistaken her for a boy!