Article September 16, 2002 Issue

Just be yourself

Mark Swinney

For two weeks one summer, Josh went to Boy Scout Camp. All the Scouts lived in two-person pup tents. Josh didn't know Mike, the boy in his tent, very well. Even though they went to the same school, Mike was a couple of years older than Josh. It didn't matter, though, because they became friends and had a great time doing just about everything together for the whole two weeks. They fished for catfish. They identified different kinds of plants. And they learned how to paddle a canoe.

After they left camp that summer, Josh and Mike didn't see much of each other. They had some of the same classes at school, and whenever they were together, they always laughed a lot because Mike was so funny. But mostly, they each did their own thing with different groups of friends.

One day, toward the end of the next year's summer vacation, Josh was out fishing in a big lagoon near his house. Usually he would have been at the diamond playing baseball, but that particular morning, Josh had decided to head down to the water with his fishing pole. He hadn't been there long when Mike came walking by with some of his friends. Josh was glad to see Mike, but Mike didn't seem very glad to see Josh. Without any explanation, Mike started to mess with the fish Josh had caught. When Josh told him to stop, Mike began punching him.

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