It happens in a blink

During the absence of posting the last few months, I was with my favorite people ever at my favorite place ever having the greatest experiences ever. With June came the time to move into camp and gear up for the best summer ever. I'm not sure I'm ever very good at writing about camp, its hard to put camp experiences into words sometimes- they are just really great.

This summer I spent 1 week at camp for staff training.

Staff training is really cool because its the only time of the summer the entire day camp staff is together. Seeing everyone arrive on that first day of camp was maybe my favorite part of the week. You can see people's excitement for the summer before they even get out of the car, and people who haven't even met yet are hugging and screaming and jumping around together.

Its nice to spend a few days with just the staff and really build up relationships and get to know people better and learn from each other. We stay up too late for no reason and play cards and eat snacks and get visits from res staff and sleep in each others beds (that might just be me). By Friday night theme dinner we are all a big family.

After staff training, everyone was more than pumped to start week one of day camp. For the rest of the summer we would get to experience a different group of counselors working together every week. I really like that, how no two weeks are the same. Different staff and different kids and different dynamics. The next seven weeks of day camp provided some of the most fulfilling, challenging, funniest, happiest, hardest, best experiences of my life. 

Each week I got 20 new campers to love and play with and laugh with and have conversations with and eat meals with and learn with and grow with. This summer I was with the youngest units for day camp and resident camp and I met some of the best kids ever. They ask a billion questions and want to constantly be on top of you and holding your hand and think you're married and are amazed when you tell them you actually LIVE at camp during the summer. They think you're really cool, and I think they're really cool so it works out well.

          I love 5 year olds. I love when Col Kel played with my trail group. I love finger painting.

I love how by Wednesday you feel like you've known your trailgroup forever and the campers give you 50 million hugs a day.

 I love how the series of pictures below is just so typical. I really love Miriam, Jackson, and Reyn.

I love when campers come for more than one week. I love Makina and how she laughs. I love when Gabe took my sunglasses or covered up my eyes so I couldn't see anything and just thought it was the funniest thing he's ever seen. I love day camp chapel every morning and singing the songs and hearing the kids answer what chapel was about.

I love seeing campers from last summer and them wanting to be even better friends and play with you even though they aren't in your trail group again. I love when campers sit on my lap. I love playing in the pool and having at least one 5 year old attached to you at all times.

I love how bubble wands could keep kids entertained for hours and watching them get so excited about something so simple.

 

 I love that we look like a family in this picture.

 I love having campers crawling on you every time you sit down (or stand up).

 I love getting dressed up wacky every Sunday night with Brave girls.

 I love the four boys on day camp staff that returned from last summer.

 I love (okay, i don't love it that much) that we found a turtle on the way to the pool one day.

 I love these brothers and how sweet and kind and fun they are.

 I love Blazer dance parties.

 I love family night and seeing campers all dressed up and sometimes awkward and excited to get their awards and do their cheer. I love going to the campfire afterwards and singing songs and being silly and meeting older campers I don't always get to hang out with during the day.

I love Derik and swimming with him and getting big hugs from him and seeing him grow up so much from last summer and being best friends and when he says "Mollllllllly" and smiles really big.

 

 I love river village trading post time and getting to just hang out with my campers and other campers and be silly and HOH and eat ice cream and see Ann and Alli and Lizzy and play with Molly from Catawba.

  I love that Michelle worked for a week so we could see each other and be silly and relive the days in Teton from last summer.

I love Lauren and how she's gonna be a great counselor one day and how she always told me how "little" I was.

 I love that I had this great support system in the river village. Irene, Erin, Alli, Annie and Sar are some of the best people I have ever met. They are consistent and genuine and great listeners. They really care about people and camp and are just so great. I don't know what I would have done without their friendship this summer. I love that Irene is so positive and optimistic about life. I love that Erin never stops going and is just so fun and thoughtful. I love that Annie gives the best hugs and knows me so well. I love that Sar gets so excited every time she sees me and that when I need someone to talk to I know she's there to listen. I love that Alli just really cares about me and what I'm going through and never gets sick of hearing about the same things over and over again.

I loved being partners with Irene for the BEST WEEK EVER!

I love Friday nights. I love feeling so close to all the girls in my cabin and dressing up and dancing on our chairs. I love not even wanting to eat dinner because I'm having so much fun singing and moving around. I love getting a Dt. Coke afterwards during trading post and watching the drama skit. I love wearing my yellow unit shirt and sining the day camp cheer at campfire. I love watching all the clinics and brave girls falling asleep when 10 o clock rolls around and sitting in my lap. I love singing the Tecumseh song every week and just feeling like there's no where else I'd rather be on a Friday evening.

 

I love that I lived in the same place as Mags for a whole summer. I love her friendship. I love how she is so selfless and puts others before herself almost to a fault. I love how she's just really great.

 

I love that Col and I are going to the same college and that this summer was just the start of the next four years where we just get to keep being in the same place and loving each other.

 

I love the entire day camp staff and how fun and caring and crazy and awesome they all are. I love how this group of people are 85 of the most exciting, honest, best people I know.

I can't believe the summer's already over and I move into college for the first time in a week. I can't imagine spending this summer anywhere other than camp, and I have just learned so much more about myself and the kind of person I want to be and I can't say enough how thankful I am for it all. Leaving camp is never easy- I don't think that will ever change. How could it be, really? But at the conclusion of this summer, more than I feel sad, I feel blessed. I feel blessed for all the awesome relationships I've formed and the ones that got to continue growing. I feel blessed to get to experience such happiness and such great perspective on life. Through all the great parts and all the hard parts and all the ridiculous parts and all the wonderful parts I have come out a better person, and I know that couldn't have happened anywhere else.