I jumped into the chilly water,  freezing and full of excitement. I was full of adventure. Ever since we had set up camp the afternoon earlier, my sister and I had talked of swimming to the island that was not but a few yards of a swim straight out in front of our camp. When we had looked for a spot to set up camp earlier Abby and I had pointed excitedly at this one exclaiming with the innocence of children,” Mom, Dad, look it’s an island!” and soon after begging “Can we please camp there?!”

My parents replied, “Yes of course, as long as you get your paddles out of the canoe and help us paddle there.”
Once we had gotten to camp, we had asked impatiently if we could swim to the island. My parents said no because it was getting to be evening and we still had to set up our camp. We set up the bright orange tents tents holding the metal poles like they were heavy as boulders, weighing us down. The bright orange tents shone like fire in the dimming landscape. We unpacked our bags and organized our tents; Abby and I always got to share a tent and I was the more organized  one that decided where everything should go and how our sleeping bags would lay. My dad made us dinner that night, which was one of those easy camping foods where you just need to add water. We all settled around the fire solemnly eating our meals and enjoyed the peaceful feeling of night time in the wilderness. Climbing into my slippery sleeping bag later that night, I couldn’t help but feel the excitement that brewed within me about the day to come.

The next day, my sister and I woke in a hurry and ate our breakfast. While we waited for the sun to rise higher, we explored our campsite. One part of our campsite had these huge rocks, and we climbed on them. They were taller than our heads by quite a bit and once we got on top of the actual rocks, we were so tall that it seemed as if we could conquer the world.

This was not the first time we had gone to the Boundary Waters. In fact, it had become quite a tradition to come here as a family to camp in the summer. We had probably gone at least three times before this and remembered each time gleefully. The fact that we had to paddle great distances to get to our camp site just solidified the distance from civilization. We were paddling into the vast wilderness, bigger than anyone could comprehend.
After lunch, we quickly changed into our suits and ran into the chilly water. As we swam the sun shone on our backs, warming us up. The swim to the island seemed to be endless, like it was a mirage in the distance that we would never reach. We eventually reached the island and climbed onto its rocky embankment. My wet suit stuck against my skin and I pulled at the slimy wet fabric that was acting like a suction cup against my skin. The sharp rocks stabbed into my feet. I quickly stumbled around trying to find a bit of grass for my feet to stand on, to give them some relief, but we quickly realized that there was a very slim amount of grass on the island and when there was grass, it was littered with rocks, large branches, and pointed foliage. As we walked around the island, the wind whipped across our faces and the giant yellow sun went away behind a cloud, chilling us for a few moments before reappearing. The island had turned out to be such a disappointment.  Finding out that the island was more disappointing than we had hoped for, we only explored the island for a short amount of time before deciding to swim back to camp.
   

We paddled quickly through the  deep blue water with our hands as the waves jostled us around. The sun was covered by a grouping of clouds making the water seem freezing. We walked out of the water only to find that a ton of little black slimy creatures had latched themselves onto us,  leeches.  Horrified, we ran up to our parents and they poured salt on all the little leeches and pulled them off our legs, while the leeches tried to hang on for their dear lives.
   

Later that evening,  I lay in my sleeping bag pondering our adventure. Our adventure had not really been a fun adventure after all. We swam all the way to that island in wait of wonderful things, yet we were met with sharp rocks, a cold swim back, and leeches. How naive of us to believe that everything would go great.  I balled my fists together as a feeling of disappointment overwhelmed me. As I continued to roll these thoughts over and over in my head, rain started hitting the roof of the tent making a sharp noise. I relaxed letting the pull of sleep close my eyes.