You Know You Love Me

I have a love/whine relationship with the camp I work at. Part of my family owns it, so I've literally been going my entire life. My ENTIRE LIFE. I was born in December, so when June rolled around, and I was six months old, this girl went to camp.

I obviously didn't do archery or paddle a canoe on my first day, or even my first few years, but my presence has been known every summer since I came into existence, 23 years ago. As soon as I was old enough to be a counselor, at 16, I was one. So yeah, camper to counselor. In other words, I've never known anything else. Summer means Camp, with perhaps a 2-4 week interlude at home.

You'd think this would mean that I love waking up with the sun and camping and that bugs are my best friends, right?

Yeeeaaaahhhh, not so much. If my girls are screaming about the giant spider, I will for sure go get the broom and beat the thing until it stops looking at me funny, and I will lie on my back and admire those stars until my eyelids snap closed because they can't take it anymore, and I LOVE hearing the stillness of the early morning (Lie, false, untrue. There's just no way I can sell getting up early to myself. I have to, I do it.)

Obviously I wouldn't have gone my entire life if it weren't wonderful and a great, amazing experience; lots of things keep me coming back for more. What, you ask?

-Roll yours eyes until they fall out of your head, but I secretly and not so secretly love the fact that I can make a basket with my eyes closed and finish within five-ten minutes flat.
-Archery is super cool. How many of you can boast the fact that you've killed a poisonous snake with a bow and arrow?
-The food ROCKS.
-Father's day always occurs when I'm at camp, so I never, ever have to think about it and hear about it and obsess over the fact that this day is and can no longer be special to me.
-Sometimes there is extreme heat. And you would think this would be a negative, and it kind of is, but on the plus side, I can now probably live ANYWHERE there is heat and be unfazed. Because I have survived 110 degree weather, and now I can do ANYTHING.
-Surprisingly, or really, not so surprisingly, I've had awesome experiences with boyfriends while at camp. Who knew?
-My family runs the camp. So basically, my family is always there.
-My best friend LL and my favorite cousin SS go to camp to, so even though we can't see each other during the year we live out our glory days together at Camp
-No matter what happens, good or bad, I always learn and grow

So yeah, not a bad place to spend some time. I whine a lot about it, but deep down, I know it's one of the places that my heart calls home.


Me, LL, and SS at camp.

"I've got a pocket, got a POCKET FULL OF SUNSHINE!"