Over the summer I worked as a camp counselor/ English conversation leader/ tour guide for international high school students. Over the duration of two weeks the students participated in many activities including pool time. One afternoon I was laying out by the pool on a nice stretch out lawn chair. I decided to get my tan on and one of my co-workers suggested that I untie the knot in my bathing suit top that strung along my middle back. I obliged and dozed off. When I woke up I decided to flip over. I got up to turn over and of course I had forgotten that I had previously untied my suit and was lucky enough to catch my top before everyone at the pool had the chance to see my breasts. I tied my suit back together and breathed a sigh of relief after my surging panic attack. I walked over to the pool and sat on the edge with my feet in the water.

One of my favorite students, Matteo (an Italian student age 18), came over and sat down next to me.

“I saw what happened,” he said.

“No you didn’t!” I replied, embarrassed.

“Yes, I did,” he countered.

“Well then you are very lucky,” I smiled.

“It was nothing special.”

“What?” I was offended. How could he say that? I threatened to push him into the pool. My friend came over and after I had regaled her with the story she and I both began laughing. Matteo looked at us and asked why we were laughing. We explained to him how at first I had been offended by him not being impressed by my accidental boob show and then how repeating the entire story had made me laugh. Finally he understood and he also began laughing. He said “Kayla, I did not mean that your boobs were nothing special. What I meant was that I barely saw any of them because I was behind you.” At this everyone around us started laughing because by this time we had a crowd of three or four Italian boys and five or so American counselors. My pride had been healed, but of course then I was asked for a re-play of the event, so I got out of the pool and left.