It was the last night of the Year Six leavers camp and we were getting ready for the ceremony that I had looked forward to the whole entire year.
I went inside my tent and laughed at the umbrella held up by bra straps to stop the rain dripping on us in the night. I was overjoyed - the torrential rain had stopped which meant we would be able to have the ceremony on the beach not under the sheltered area. Then disappointment came over me again - the usual pitter- patter of rain on the tent started again. I heard Wendy’s voice calling “Meeting.” So I put on my raincoat and went to the meeting area which was hard to fit in since there were 30 people trying to fit under one tarpaulin with 3 picnic tables too. (Wendy was our teacher,) At the meeting Wendy gave the adults instructions on how to look after and get the Year Fives ready for the ceremony. She then gathered all of the Year Sixes to go to the undercover area where we were having the ceremony.
When we got there we built a fire. It started getting dark which meant the ceremony would start soon. Then I remembered I had forgotten my symbol to symbolise my years at Currambena. My Symbol was a boomerang that I found on my first school camp in year four. I chose it because when you throw a boomerang it always comes back to you and my memories of Currambena will always come back to me until the day I die. When I got back the fire was roaring. Wendy asked who would go first. Nobody would go first so I decided I would. It was really dark now and the only thing that stopped it from being pitch black was our fire then suddenly there was a bang of drums which meant the ceremony had just started.
Then finally came the long line of candles which was the most wonderful experience of my life. All we could hear were the waves down on the beach and the slow rhythmic sound of the drums and all we could see was a long row of floating candles. I sat down on the camp chair where we were going to sit while we gave our speech. This was it. The moment I had been waiting for for years. Everyone sat down and I started to speak.
It was now my best friend Annabel’s turn to speak. She was the last person. I listened to her very carefully and thought about us being at school together for nine years and now being split apart and before i knew it there were tears rolling down my face. I looked at my friend Abby who was sitting next to me. She looked at me then Annabel and then started crying. I leaned into her. Annabel had finished and now we got to tell her how much we would miss her. She picked me first and as soon as she saw me she started to cry which made me cry even more. I told her that I felt like I was a fourth child in her family and that her house was like a home away from home for me and that it didn’t matter that we were going to be at different high schools because we’ll still be friends.
We went back to camp. When we got there Wendy gave us a big hug. We went and got ready for bed and got into bed and soon enough all I could hear was Annabel’s soft breathing and the pitter-patter of the rain on the tent and then my eyelids felt heavy and then it was dark and I was asleep.
By Georgia Hammett.