Before I give you a rundown of my week up at camp, let me back up to about 8 years ago when I joined this crazy, ridiculous, life-changing organization called UCLA UniCamp.

[Quick edit: Apparently, I can’t sum up 8 years of my life with UniCamp in one post. Well, I can…but it’d be one super-humungous post. So, my UniCamp experiences will be shared in snippets….hope you enjoy reading these as much as I enjoyed writing and reflecting on some of the most important moments of my life…<3 )

As a young, (fairly) open-minded freshman at UCLA, I wanted to get involved. In high school, I had been overly involved in sports, ASB, and other organizations on campus. But UCLA was different because it was HUGE. It was really easy to get lost (literally and figuratively) and I was lacking a “community.” Don’t get me wrong, I lived in one of the more social residential halls and had the most amazing people living on my floor (still best friends with them to this day!), but I felt like I wanted to do more, see more, and contribute more. My RA (Residential Advisor) knew I liked working with kids and, about halfway through my first year, she casually mentioned UniCamp to me. I had no idea how much my life was going to change after filling out that application….

Source: UCLA UniCamp

Eight years later, I have no recollection of the words that were exchanged during the phone conversation. But apparently I passed the test and, soon after, joined Session 1 2005. My “Woodsey name” was is The Beav. Let me just quickly explain how that name came about (and then from here on out, I’ll direct people to this blog post when they give me weird looks or ask me if my “middle name on Facebook is a practical joke played by my friends.” I seriously can’t remember the number of times people have asked me why I voluntarily chose to be called The Beav):

Keep in mind – I was a shy freshman. So when I was filling out this application, I wanted to pretend I was fully capable and didn’t need anyone’s help (when, in actuality, I was probably just too nervous to ask). When I reached the section that asked for my “Woodsey name,” the non-outdoorsy, overly-sheltered girl in me was confused. What does that even mean? I have a name – you can call me Divya, thank you very much. But instead of asking someone (like a normal person would), I just took a guess. Woodsey – well….maybe it means I have to choose a name that’s related to nature/the woods. For example: log, tree, forest, rain, stump (<—- once again, please remember, I was a wee little FRESHMAN that didn’t know any better). So I chose Beav. For two reasons. (1) Beavers can be seen in the woods…right? And (2) My grandpa called me Biva (pronounced: Bee-vuh). I don’t know why or where that nickname came about, but it’s been his name for me since I was a lil baby.

So Beav stuck. Even after I was informed what a “Woodsey name” was…it stuck with me. For 8 years. And forever.