“Simple minds, simple pleasures.” Someone said that to me today and for a moment time stopped. It brought me back to a memory so clear. It was the summer before I turned 16 and I was at beach camp nearby the lake. A full week with no rules, no nagging, no authority, just time with eleven other teens my age, free time, time to just live the way you wanted.

For as long as I could remember, I had always hated having a blanket. A mattress was good enough, a pillow not necessarily necessary, but blankets were just out of the question. The last night at the camp, my new friends and I were lying on the beach with our backs on the cool sand, listening to the waves roll against the shores. It was 3:30 am, not a soul in sight, and my best newest friend was lying beside me.

No matter how hard he tried, the poor guy could just not lie still! He complained about the sand in his shoes, about how thirsty he was and how dry his mouth felt, although in front of us was gallons and gallons of clear lake water. His back was sore and he was freezing cold. It was then that I asked him the question that led to his statement. “How can you be cold, when we have the biggest, thickest, most beautiful blanket draping over us?” He gave me a smirk, rolled his eyes, laid back down and shut his eye lids.

I just didn’t get the accusing message he was trying to send me. Was he blind, or were my eyes showing me things no one else could see? Above me, for as far and as deep as I could look, was the most beautiful “blanket” of bright, amazing, twinkling stars. Everywhere I looked I found a new story that needed to be told. I could have lied there forever, searching for what seemed to be the answers to my many life’s questions. It was just beautiful, like nothing I had ever seen before.

“Simple minds, simple pleasures.” Almost came as an innocent insult thrown my way from my far too anxious friend beside me. I guess some people will just never understand the true beauties of life. That night, I saw things I had never seen before, and from that moment on, I was changed. Never have I since experienced something so amazing, so wonderful. The next day at breakfast, I tried explaining what I had seen, but no seemed to want to understand. They were far too into their fruit loops and cheerios. Simple minds, simple pleasures, I guess.