“Where’s my wife?”

“Can you help me paint my house?”

“I’m going to get arrested now.”

Here I am, at Shira Talent Camp, where such strange expressions float through the halls. The girls are flying high – on adrenaline, excitement, and nerves. What is this wondrous place?

STC is a middle-school performing arts camp, where close to 60 girls come together to put on a high-school level, professional performance. Girls as young as 10 memorize lines and have choir and dance solos, where each shines in front of her family, friends, and community.

Ever since I can remember, I saw the numbers. They aren’t big. They aren’t small. But they are everywhere.

It was the first day of school. School was never my favorite place to be, but I did well enough and had a nice social group. Some would call us cliquey; I just thought of ourselves as good friends. I never felt like I could call anyone my “best friend,” not until this year, at least. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

My favorite subject was always math. Perhaps it was because I had been seeing numbers my whole life. Perhaps it was just because Hashem had granted me a math brain, or perhaps the teachers just liked me! But, suffice it to say, I was busy counting on my fingers and toes when all most kids wanted to do was play Roley Poley.