Not long now until camp starts! It’s time to get in the right mental state to deal with hundreds of crazy kids and embarking on your first overseas solo adventure (maybe?).

Your nine weeks+ spent at summer camp will be some of the craziest you’ve ever experienced and it’s important you’re prepared for this. Here are a few ways you can get yourself ready for a brilliant summer in the states.

How to prepare for summer camp

1. Read my book Secret Diary of a Camp Counselor to find out what camp’s really like behind all the practical information and camp agency hyperbole.
2. Direct any questions you might have to your camp agency, or to me on Twitter @USCampCounselor or on my Facebook page and I’ll do my best to answer them.
3. Say goodbye to your friends and family and warn them that you’re going to be a completely different, more brilliant person when you get back.
4. Check you’ve got all you need on the kit list.
5. Watch Camp Rock, and take it with a pinch of salt.
6. At your next mealtime close your eyes and imagine absolute carnage around you. Food being thrown, kids getting up and down, head counselors shouting and you just trying to get a plate of food before it all goes. Mealtimes at camp are crazy; I’ve gone into them in more detail in my book.
7. Don’t speak to your friends or family.
8. Have a really busy, non stop day, then go out drinking with your mates until about 3am, then set your alarm for 7am really loud, then wake your family and try to get them to walk up the road to get some breakfast in the cold and you’ll get an idea of what getting up for camp is really like.
9. Ask a brick wall to pick up their clothes, sweep the floor, have a shower, wake up or go to sleep.
10. When you go to the toilet imagine someone shouting your name ‘Lucy, Lucy, where are you’. You don’t get a moment’s peace for a poo I’ll tell you that now!
11. Don’t look at a newspaper/magazine, the TV or listen to the radio for a whole day – then imagine that for the whole summer.
12. Think about the best adventure of your life so far, and times the fun factor by at least 10 – that’s camp!