Aches and Pains

So, I have a tendency to be clumsy. Very clumsy. And camp only enhances that. I pretty much need to use an ice pack at least once a day. But I look classy doing so! Here are some of my best injuries from this past summer.

Rockin that ice pack look!

Ice pack style #2!

The weekend between the first and second week of camp, Bam and I had gone to another camp to help out. That Saturday afternoon, I was helping Snow White with cookie decorating and Bam was doing dishes. When we stopped having people come in and decorate cookies, Bam took a break. I had sat in a chair, and she sat on top of me. Not a huge deal. Except, Snow’s hands were covered in frosting and she was coming towards us. I don’t do frosting and they both knew that, so Bam wasn’t about to move and let me escape. Oh no, they made escaping really difficult. I had a plan though. I was going to slide off the side of the chair onto the ground. Bam would land on the chair and Snow would wind up covering her in frosting. One problem with that plan though. As I started scooting towards the edge of the chair, the chair cracked. I fell off the chair, Bam landed on top of me, and I smacked my head on the table leg that was behind us. It hurt, A lot. But, because of that, I didn’t get any frosting on me, so I mean that’s cool.

The whole week following that incident was rough. I smacked my head twice on the benches in the lodge when I sat up in the middle of the night during a slumber party. I hit my head on my bunk multiple times. And, one day at breakfast, I leaned back too far and smacked my head on the wall. Needless to say, I had almost a constant headache. And I already get headaches almost daily. The head hitting didn’t help that.

A few weeks later, I was packing up my stuff to move to a different cabin when I heard Buttercup scream, “Chatter, I’m leaving!” I sat up really fast, smacked my head on the bunk so hard that I fell over, and winded up hitting my head on the floor. She heard the thud of my body hitting the floor and ran in. She just gave me the “what in the world did you do?!” look. I tried to explain, but my voice had jumped up an octave (it’s already pretty high to begin with) and she couldn’t understand a word I was saying. She said, “I’ll talk to you when you sound like a normal person.” But, I couldn’t control it! My head hurt pretty bad after that as well. My voice went back to “Chatter normal” after a few minutes but my head continued to hurt for the rest of the day.

Of course I also had my fair share of scrapes, cuts, and bruises (I usually had no clue why the bruises showed up!), but these were the most memorable injuries for me. And definitely the most painful!

 

The One Spontaneous Thing I Did This Summer

The one thing I regret about camp from this summer is that I wasn’t very spontaneous. Not until towards the end anyway.

The last week of camp, Buttercup and I were on a night hike with my 10 little Pony Tail girls (literally my favorite group of campers all summer!). I was leading the group, and she was picking up the rear. I overheard two girls talking.

Girl one: “Did you ask her yet?”

Girl two: “Not yet!”

Me:”What do you have to ask me?”

Girls: “Nothing!”

Buttercup: “Are we asking Chatter questions?! Chatter, will you marry me?!”

Me: “No! Not unless you give me a proper proposal!”

Buttercup then proceeded to sprint to the front of the line (breaking the camp’s no running rule). She got down on one knee, held out the archery key ring (we had also done archery that night) and said, “Chitter Chatter Cheddar Cheese Sassafrass Neow Box will you be my bride?”

I laughed for a long while before finally saying “YES!”

All my girls cheered! They were insistent that they were going to throw us a wedding! Buttercup only meant it to be a joke! By the next morning it was determined that the camp director, Colonel, was going to be singing. Buttons, the Irish international, was going to be our priest, and Bam was going to walk me down the aisle. Oh, and it was taking place that night and the whole camp was invited!

During their Me Time, my girls made invitations, flowers, decorations, wrote us vows, and came up with a color scheme. Behind the scenes, Rev, the health supervisor, was conspiring with the cooks to have a wedding cake decorated and he made a reception playlist.

When it came time for the actual event, it had to be moved inside due to weather. The benches were lined up to form an aisle and the walls were nicely decorated with drawings of hearts. I was not allowed to see the place until it was my turn to walk down the aisle. As my flower girl, bridesmaid, and best maid (they didn’t like the maid of honor thing) proceeded to walk down the aisle, I had never been happier. Then it was my and Bam’s turn to walk down the aisle. The other staff members that were not in the wedding (especially Bacon, who was filming the whole thing) encouraged all the campers to stand. I couldn’t believe all this was actually happening. Camp sure makes people do wacky things!

B was standing at the end of the aisle laughing so hard. After a hug from Bam, I joined B awkwardly laughing as we said “I do”. It was with great enthusiasm that we exchanged rings made from pipe-cleaners, beads, and water-balloons. We then secured our friendship with a hug and an epic high five.

After a lovely ceremony where we even had some objections (from Bam and Dandy), we opened gifts from our gift table (lots of pictures and a paper mache eggplant!) and then we had our first dance to “Love Story” by Taylor Swift. It was an interpretative dance that transitioned to everyone fist pumping! Then the reception started! The typical line dance songs were played like “The Cha Cha Slide” and “Cupid Shuffle”  intermixed with Disney music and other random hits. About halfway through the reception we had cake! It was wonderfully decorated and we even fed each other a bite, which I was weird about since I don’t like people touching my food- but I did it anyway in the spirit of camp (after we flipped it over since I don’t like frosting!)! See the video to see the cake part! Balloons were thrown everywhere and a good time was held by most.

It meant a lot to my girls to be able to plan such an event! I told them they should all go in business together and plan weddings for a living, but they all looked at me like “never again”, my girls were exhausted! But, it is things like this that make camp so memorable for the campers. My girls will always remember the time they planned a wedding for two counselors.

Our Wedding Photo!

Next summer I’m going to make it my goal to do more spontaneous things like this, although probably not to this extent! I am going to jump in the mud pit, swim with my clothes on, and not hold back when it comes to anything! I want to see my girls have huge smiles all the time because their counselor is always awesome, not just sometimes.

The Duh Shovel

So my camp has this tradition of awarding a duh shovel to the staff member with the best duh moment that week (there is also a shovel for the staff member that had the toughest week). The staff member then has to carry around the shovel for the entire following week and if they don’t have it, and someone finds it, they have to sing to get it back. My last year as a CIT all the other CITs predicted I would be carrying the duh shovel around all summer. Well, they were wrong! But, only partially. Of the five weeks it was awarded, I won twice. Yup, I’m impressed too .I was very possessive of my shovel because the CITs will steal it, hide it, and make you sing if you aren’t careful! I slept with it under my pillow, tied it to my backpack and/or to by belt depending on the day. I made sure I NEVER had to sing for it!

The first time it was awarded was after week one of campers. I won it then because I radioed admin to tell them about a possible stranger driving through camp…it turned out to be our ranger! Woops! However, I was actually pressured into radioing that because I had the radio, otherwise I wouldn’t have!

The second week Dandy and Rafiki got it because while setting up program stuff they were on the golf cart. Dandy kept hearing a dive-bombing bird that was following them around camp. She managed to convince Rafiki of this bird too. Turns out it was just the sound the wind makes through the golf cart!

The third week Sprout won the duh shovel because she called a CIT her real name instead of her camp name about 6 times and still didn’t realize it.

The fourth week the shovel was split yet again. Rosie had it first because during Me and My Gal weekend’s opening campfire she introduced herself using her real name and then went “oh crap! I meant Rosie!” And then Buttons had it because she managed to get a glow stick stuck on the pool house roof during our glow swim.

The fifth week I was awarded it again. Not for one specific purpose though. Buttercup had kept a list of everything I had done the previous week and goodness was it long! 1) I managed to smack myself in the jaw with my water bottle (which really hurt!). 2) I was sitting on top of the picnic table and when I went to get off, I fell. When asked how I managed that, I went to give a demonstration but this time I was going to catch myself. I didn’t catch myself…3) I got into a fight with a wall…and lost. 4) I was losing my voice but still needed to be loud while lifeguarding so I said, “Hey B! I blow, you scream.” and finally 5) We were doing a pack-out breakfast and making eggs. To scramble the eggs, I found a device that looked like it could be useful and when I asked B if I could use it for the eggs, she looked at me and said, “Chatter, that’s an eggbeater!” So of course I could use it! I just didn’t know it was an eggbeater…

Me being very protective of my duh shovel! Everyone who is awarded the shovel signs it. There are years worth of names written on it!

The best part of having the duh shovel though is at the end of the week when you get to hand it off to the next victim. Next summer’s goal? Not being awarded the duh shovel!

Chatter

So I know in the “Getting to Know Me” tab I told a shortened version of how I got my name but I decided to post the full version- taken straight out of my 9 chapter memoir all about camp. I hope you enjoy! Oh and here is one of my favorite Chatter pictures from 2011!

The year was 2009. It was a rather warm night inside the tent with us four girls inside. We were in the camp session called “Pink Party”.  I had dragged my friend, Carly, to camp with me. Not because I needed to, I was a well-experienced camper at this point that didn’t need a built-in buddy, but because I thought she would enjoy it. Well, she was enjoying it, but at the same time, she was annoying me like crazy. I was glad we were sharing a tent with another buddy pair, Taylor and Cassie, because I didn’t think I could handle her for much longer. As the four of us got to know each other, we found out some creepily similar things between us. For one, Taylor and I have the same birthday. And, Cassie and Carly had the same thyroid issues. Now, these things really aren’t that interesting or rare, but to us, it meant we were connected.

The four of us were laying on our pillows, trying to sleep, when I just couldn’t contain my excitement anymore. I needed to talk. About everything. I needed to re-live the camp day that had just ended and share my anticipation of the next day’s activities. And so, I just talked. A lot. I didn’t stop until Cassie said she had a headache. Then Taylor and Carly agreed that they both had headaches too. I realized that I also had a headache. Because of the weird connections earlier, and the fact that now we all had headaches, we realized we were sort of like a club. And so, we became “The Headachers”. Obviously no club is complete without nicknames, so we instantly picked those too. Everyone decided that my unquenchable ramblings were the reason that we all had headaches at the same time. And from that moment on, my name was simply Chatter.

Changing my name seemed to have changed me. The next morning, and throughout the day, I told any camper who would listen about my name. And none of them disagreed, I was for sure going to be Chatter for a very long time. I made a lot of friends that day, some, who were clearly very introverted, were scared at first, but eventually I grew on them. I gave every camper in the whole camp a name. That amounted to 23 different names that I came up with after learning the person’s real name and their personality a bit. Nobody else knew who I was talking about most of the time because they barely knew their own nickname, much less somebody elses.

The rest of that week went smoothly. I had a new personality that allowed me to branch out in a completely different direction than I was used to. I wasn’t too shy to voice my opinion; I talked to everyone at meals even if I didn’t know them, and I felt free.

That freedom has continued on through my camp years, and has even leaked out into my everyday personality. Through the years my name has grown to now be Chitter Chatter Cheddar Cheese Sassafrass Neow Box. Although, nobody ever actually says my full name! Cheddar Cheese because sometimes campers mishear my name and think my name is Cheddar, Sassafrass because my friend Fusilli thinks I’m sassy, Neow because it is one of my favorite sounds and Fifi thought it should be included in my name, and Chitter and Box just go with the word Chatter.

In 2013, the group of campers I worked with fell in love with my name because it is so long. While waiting outside the shower house, I could hear the girls saying “I can say it faster than you” and “I can say it backwards.” And, then they would proceed to say it over and over. It became kind of like a tongue twister. It was sweet.

Becoming Chatter was the highlight of my camp career, because without that transition, I would still be serious, uptight, and worried at camp. One of my favorite things to hear is “Chatter, stop talking” or “now I realize why they call you Chatter” because it means that I have an identity and a personality that really shines.

Making Friends…With the Enemy?

A couple days before staff training, Bam BAM added me on Facebook. Now I had met her 3 years earlier so I didn’t find that part odd. It was weird because I had added her when I turned 18, and she denied me (even though every other staff member accepted me). I took that to mean she didn’t like me so I assumed she only added me because she was the assistant director and felt obligated to connect with me.

I was also terrified of her because of an incident that had happened when I was a CIT 1. The CITs had gone to her camp (now my camp, too!) to help with a Me and My Gal weekend (basically moms and their daughters) and we were helping with packout dinner. Well, when it came time to do dishes, Bam BAM dumped the soap in the warm water. We, the CITs, started to slosh the water around so the soap could get sudsy. However, that didn’t happen. The water felt thick. We turned to Bam BAM and told her we didn’t think it was soap, but she insisted multiple times that it was (and she gave us some sass that she knew for sure it was, too). After washing multiple dishes, Bubbles drove up on a golf cart. She said, “Did you guys need soap? There was an extra in the kitchen.” Bam BAM told her no and that we had some, but Bubbles looked in the dish water and said, “Are you sure? That doesn’t look very sudsy.” Bam took the empty soap container and slowly dipped in her middle finger and then brought it to her mouth to taste it. She then concluded that we did, indeed, need soap because we had oil instead. Gee, if only she would have listened to us CITs! Bubbles looked at us and said, “Who gave you guys oil?” Immediately, we all turned and pointed at Bam BAM. Bam BAM then proceeded to go off on us. She told us that we never throw another staff member under the bus and that we shouldn’t point people out. It was scary. We hadn’t meant to offend, just answer Bubbles’s question.

The next two summers I was a CIT at her camp. I spent the first summer avoiding her because I was terrified of her. At the end of that summer I sent all the staff members (including her) a friendship bracelet and letter. I asked her to email me the name of a song that was on one of her CDs that had been used in Whitetail (the arts&crafts cabin). She didn’t get back to me until May! And by that point I was surprised she got back to me at all. Of course, she had no idea what song I was talking about by then but it was still awesome to get an email from her. Plus she ended the email “Will we be seeing you at camp this summer?” I took that to mean she wanted me to come back. And her second email even said, “See you in about 2 months!” With an exclamation point! I took that to mean that she wasn’t angry with me anymore and we would be on good terms. However, anytime we saw her that next summer she would maybe say hi before running back to whatever she was doing. She was always in a hurry and seemed like she didn’t want to talk to us. I then reverted back to being scared of her and thinking she didn’t like me.

This summer that thinking changed though. As I walked up to the dining hall on my first day of staff training, I was a little nervous but mostly just SUPER excited. Bam BAM opened the door for me and said,” I knew you would be the first one here!” I didn’t know how to take that. Plus, I was still leery of her. It turned out that she was the only returning staff member so she was the closest thing I had to an ally and I was the closest thing she had to someone who knew the basics of how camp runs, how to teach camp songs, and other random camp information. Eventually it was time to move my stuff into my cabin. As everyone else headed up to the unit (the internationals had gotten there the night before and were switching cabins), I headed to my car. But then, suddenly, Bam BAM stopped and asked me if I wanted help. I didn’t really need help but I took her up on it anyway. At that moment I knew our past discrepancies wouldn’t affect camp.

By the time we reached the unit, I felt rather comfortable around her. And after moving my stuff into my cabin I even straight up told her I wasn’t scared of her anymore. She was shocked to hear that I had ever been scared of her. She had completely forgotten that she had yelled at us and she profusely apologized. She had been overtired, cranky, and exhausted from the week of campers she had had and didn’t mean to take out her anger at us. We were beginning to mend this mess and form a bond.

The next night we were in Whitetail to learn how to make lanyards. I was one of the first to sit and I hoped Bam BAM would sit next to me. When she slid in next to me on the bench I was beyond excited! As we both struggled through making lanyards, (you’d think after going to camp for so many years we’d have it down..) I realized I was having fun. Eventually Bam BAM gave up and just tied her strings in some sort of weird knot contraption thing. But she made it for me! We were officially friends! I ended up staying awake a long time talking to her that night. We ended up standing at the latrines at 3:25 AM exchanging phone numbers so that I could continue to talk to her whilst in our separate cabins since I didn’t want to go to sleep.

Then it was Friday! And she was leaving to go to Vegas for the weekend. I was disappointed. The first weekend of the summer and she was already leaving me! We ended up texting the entire weekend. I woke up so early Saturday morning (because I was so excited!) that she hadn’t even gone to bed yet! By Sunday night I was so excited that she was coming back that I sat at the window and watched for her headlights to pull in. I then jumped up and hurriedly moved to greet her and give her a hug. And trust me, Chatter hugs are a BIG deal! I don’t do touchy things often (or at least I didn’t then). That night we stayed up talking until 4:30 in the morning! We only went to sleep because Bam BAM explained the importance of a power-nap.  And, I had lifeguard training in the morning.. see the previous post for how THAT went.

During our separation while I was getting lifeguard trained I realized that I missed her. A lot. I even started calling her Bamalamadingdong. I still don’t know how I thought of that- my best guess is that I was so sleep deprived I was nuts. The night that she debriefed us from training when we were FINALLY back home, I actually fell asleep laying on her leg, sitting on the dining hall floor. And for the next two weeks she made sure to coat me in aloe at least 2-3 times a day. She actually cared about my well-being and didn’t care if I liked it or not. Her favorite phrase was “I’m so mean. Hate me”. Not that hating her was even a possibility anymore.

The following week, the campers arrived! During my break the second day I spent the two hours with Bam BAM running to the council office and getting gas in the van (I kinda fell asleep while she was pumping gas…haha). That weekend the two of us took a trip to a different camp to help with a Me and My Gal overnight. We spent about 3 hours in the car together each way. Needless to say we had a lot of time to bond.

Once at the other camp, we tended to stick together. The next day I was helping with stations whilst Bam BAM was cooking and doing dishes. In the afternoon, I was on cookie decorating in the same vicinity as Bam BAM. Once all the moms and girls had gone through, I made Bamalamadingdong her own cookie. She said she liked frosting so…

 

As the weeks of camp flew by, my friendship with Bam only grew stronger. Several nights were spent cuddling, venting, and crying for various reasons. And, that crying thing was new for me. It was the first time I had cried in nearly seven years. But, Bam was there for me. Even after going into our separate cabins we would always stay up just a little later to talk about the day via text.

Over the course of the summer Bam had played many roles in my life- mom, dad (when she walked me down the aisle), older sister, best friend, matchmaker, and boss. I was not looking forward to saying goodbye after camp cleanup. But, the time came anyway. By the time Bam was leaving the only people left on camp were Sully and Bacon (who were riding with me) and Rev (who wasn’t leaving until I did). I watched as Bam said goodbye to Rev and Bacon. Then, she paused, equidistant from both me and Sul, and she looked at both of us. I shook my head at her. I was not ready to say goodbye. After saying goodbye to Sul, she eventually made her way over to the desk, which I was sitting on, and wrapped her arms around me. At that exact second, I lost it. I couldn’t remember a time that I cried harder. I really did not know what to do with myself and I didn’t let go for a long time. During this embrace Bam tried to distract me and make me stop crying by jokingly saying it was my fault for being too young to work at camp the previous year, telling me “it doesn’t work this way” and I couldn’t just cry, and the part that made me cry harder was when she said, “but you’ll be back next year” and I had to respond with, “but you don’t know if you’ll be”. That was one of the rawest emotions I had ever had. I had no idea if I would see her again and actually just writing this makes me tear up.

I never suspected that Bam and I would be so close. Heck, I barely assumed we would be friends. I started camp terrified of her and I ended camp like a child that is overly attached to their mom- never wanting to let go and let her leave. And honestly, I think the only place you can even have a friendship like that is at camp.

 

 

Lifeguard Training

After three super positive posts, I need to share a not so positive experience with y’all. Lifeguard training.

Lifeguard training was hell simply put. It was exhausting, not only physically but mentally as well because we had to sit through hours of demonstration videos. It probably would have gone better (and maybe I would have fallen asleep less during it) if I had more than one hour of sleep the night before the first day of it (but I stayed up way too late talking and then only took a power nap). And these were long days- like 8 hours long- of watching videos, practicing what we watched in the pool or on land for some of the first aid stuff, with few breaks. And there were two of them. To make matters worse I wasn’t even at my camp. We were at another camp in the council so all the lifeguards could get trained together. My main supporter, Bam BAM,wasn’t getting trained so she was back at our camp by the end of the first day. I had to quickly bond more with the other staff from my camp and the staff from the other camp as we were all we had. And, our instructor kind of sucked. He was boring, told stories way off-topic, and overall just irritating.

By the end of the first day, I was burnt to a crisp. I figured since we were constantly moving from inside to outside I wouldn’t get sunburned. Because of that, I only put sunscreen on my tattoo and my face. Well, I probably should have listened to Sully and put it on my back, shoulders, and chest as well. I was crispy. The camp director at the camp we were at took it upon herself to slather me in aloe after the first day. Although I hated it at the time, I’m so very glad she did! Here is after day one. And I can tell you it hurt way worse than it looks.

That night Sully and I hung out together. And to be honest, we were homesick for our camp. We didn’t like not seeing familiar faces after a super stressful day. And we were definitely dreading waking up early the next day for another round of exhaustion. I actually woke up at about four that morning for a brief time and saw it was storming and prayed it would stay that way so we wouldn’t be able to finish training. Unfortunately that didn’t happen.

However we made it through that second day, I really don’t know. It honestly felt like we had been abandoned because there was only seven of us on the entire property when we woke up that morning (the staff that worked there went to our camp for training on that day).It was exhausting. We were all drained and cranky and then we had to take a two part test to prove we really knew what we were doing. That was an experience all in it’s own. I finished quickly, completing part two before others had even finished part one. And after that I was done! However, I still had to wait for everyone else to finish before I could go back home (my camp). After waiting at least another hour, we were set and ready to go! Thank goodness!

When we got back to our camp, Bam gave us big hugs and told us how appreciated and loved we were. We were just glad to be back home.

I ended up disliking lifeguarding, but I was pretty good at. I eliminated all distracting factors (certain people) and I managed to stay focused on the pool or pond. While I dreaded having to lifeguard, I trusted myself to make sure the kids were safe and rules were being followed. I hated having to tell my kids I couldn’t swim with them because I needed to make sure they were safe- it broke my heart every time. But, I wouldn’t change having that responsibility for anything. Knowing that I was responsible for making sure all my campers got out of the pool still alive and breathing was absolutely terrifying, but I would rather be in charge because I trust myself over others to ensure safety over my girls. Even when I wasn’t lifeguarding, and I was just watching, I was on high alert, ready to jump in if they needed me.

One thing I learned through this experience is that it is actually a lot of work to lifeguard- it isn’t simply staring at the pool. And while the training kicked my butt, I’m so glad to be able to say that I am lifeguard certified.

The Little Things (Part Two)

So, part two of this post is going to focus more on the staff aspect of minor details that I took for granted and now I severely miss.

• Sully (an international counselor from Britain) had never had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before (I know, it’s totally unbelievable!), and so I was the first person to make her a PB&J. It was cool to see her reaction to a food we, Americans, consider so commonplace.
• Aretha (a day-camp counselor that commuted) used to leave me little notes in my mailbox about once a week because I never really had a chance to talk with her since I always worked res camp. They said sweet, little, uplifting things that filled my heart with joy.
• Because I tended to injure my head one way or another at least everyday, Cheerio (the arts and crafts director) made me a helmet…made out of a milk jug. It was decorated with fabric and puffy paint- very in style! Although I don’t miss hitting my head, I miss having people that care enough to do something like that for me!
• The countless stories we would tell campers about our lives. My favorite was Bacon’s Big Move Love Story. It took place when she was in preschool and was VERY dramatic. Something I definitely miss hearing once a week.
• The banana phone calls between Bacon and Rafiki during lunch. They always told the stupidest jokes that I sort of just rolled my eyes at. Now I roll my eyes because lunch is boring without them.
• Singing “Taps” while taking down the flag every night. I love that song even if everybody is way off-key.
• The nightly congregation of whatever counselors were staying in that unit plus Bam BAM and Rev after the campers were in bed. I miss just discussing how everyone’s days went and sometimes laughing so hard we woke up campers. Whoops!
• Naps on the picnic tables during Me Time. I never wanted to nap in my cabin in case the campers needed me, so I would lay on the picnic tables. Doesn’t sound all that comfortable, but it totally was! See! (More on why I have a shovel later)

• The penguin skit. With Bacon driving, Buttons as a cop, Dandy and at least one other penguin, that skit was the best and it changed weekly. The punchline was always the same, but somehow that group managed to tweak it and make it better every week.
• Pack out dinners. While completely stressful and chaotic (and for those reasons I tended to schedule my break during them), nothing tastes better than food cooked over a campfire! Even the meals I don’t like I miss so much. Plus, puppy chow! I miss making weekly batches of puppy chow in garbage bags since we don’t have pots big enough!
• On the topic of puppy chow, the amount of puppy chow we ate a week was probably in no way healthy. But, Me Time snack or late night chow, it was always there. It was almost like the glue that brought us all together. It was something we could all bond over before delving into deeper conversations.

I’m sure there are countless more little everyday things that I regret not cherishing more that I unfortunately just can’t think of at this time. But, I know next summer I’m going to appreciate everything ten times more.

The Little Things (Part One)

One of the biggest things I learned this past year at camp is that it’s important to appreciate the little things. From small memories and crazy things that kids say, to little everyday things we take for granted, it all is important. I extremely miss some of these obscure things in my everyday life. Part One of this sequence is strictly camper memories while Part Two will be more staff oriented.

Some of my favorite camper memories this year include:

• Me: “During Me Time the floor is lava. You need to stay in your bed.”
  • Camper: “Well, I have lava boots….”
• Me: “Okay, time to pack up all your stuff so you can be ready for your parents.”
  • Camper: “How do I know what stuff is mine?”
  • My Co (thankfully!): If you didn’t see it at home before, don’t pack it!
• Me: “We walk at camp!”
  • Camper: “I SAW A BEAR!” (Sure she did…in Northern Illinois…)
• Camper: “My tummy hurts.”
  • Me: “Well, maybe drink some more water and check back in later to let me know how you’re feeling.”
  • Camper: *extended fart*
  • Me: “Or, maybe you just need to go to the bathroom….”
  • Camper: *Smile and nod of head*
• Camper “I just like you!”
• Me: “I haven’t gotten a friendship bracelet all summer, so if anyone wants to make me one, that would be great…”
  • Camper: 2 seconds later “I hear you haven’t gotten one all summer… here you go!” *hands me bracelet*
• Camper: *crying hysterically* “I can’t find my hat. I haven’t started looking for it yet but I lost it”
  • Me: “How about we look for it in the morning and you just go to sleep?”
  • Camper: “Okay.” *instantly stops crying*
• Camper (via a letter): “Thank you for being in my life.”

Sure, some of these situations stressed me out, but looking back on it I can fully appreciate all the little things my campers said. My campers were funny, caring, and I wouldn’t trade any of them for anything! Kids really do say the darndest things!

Top Ten Reasons I LOVE Camp

Picking only 10 reasons I LOVE camp is rather difficult, but I think I’ve managed…

10. The beds. For some reason, camp beds are the most comfortable beds to sleep on EVER. Some of the most solid sleep of my entire life has occurred at camp.

9. Hugs. Even if you’re not a touchy feely person, you will be by the end of camp! But really, fellow staff members give the BEST hugs and know just when you need them most!

8. If you’re doing it right, then you’re literally getting paid to do what you love. You get to spend all summer with your newly found best friends in the outdoors inspiring the younger generation and teaching them how to be confident, creative, and charming young citizens.

7. Nothing seems scary at camp. The dark woods? Nope. That freakishly close lightning strike? Nah. That disgustingly large bug? Negative. Camp is a safe place and plus, you can’t be scared in front of the campers. You put on your big girl pants and suddenly all of your fears from home no longer occur at camp.

6. The spontaneity. There is a schedule for everyday, but in all reality something that day isn’t going to work out due to weather, or something will run shorter or longer than planned and you just have to deal with it and go with the flow. Everyday brings a new adventure!

5. Creek Stomping- What could be more fun than walking around in a creek trying to catch crayfish and tadpoles while simultaneously getting chewed by mosquitoes?!

4. You can be yourself. No judgments. You want to rock rain boots and plannel? You do you. You like to wear a milk jug on your head as a helmet? More power to you! You want your whole face painted to look like an animal? Go for it! Style is whatever you feel comfortable in and feel like wearing that day. There is never pressure to conform to a certain look.

3. The kids. After all, camp is for the camper. Sure, sometimes you get that one kid that is literally the spawn of Satan, but in general most of the kids are lovely human beings that adore and worship the ground you walk on, which is a pretty nice feeling. And, they say the cutest things!

2. Friends! Friends everywhere! Almost everyone at camp will be your friend, or at the very least they will support you and let you rant about devil children, other staff members, or the amount of mosquito bites you have.

1. SO MUCH FUN! Literally everything is FUN! Even cleaning the latrines!….Well at least when youhave your official BFFE- Best Friend For Ever- with you and you’re  jamming to music.