11 Lessons I Learned From Summer Camp

Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that I'm dating Superman? 

I am a camp girl, through and through. Every year, as soon as Christmas is done, I feel the familiar twinge to start thinking about and planning for camp. Which just begins a 4-month long battle with myself to keep doing schoolwork. It's a serious struggle guys. I have attended or worked at a camp every year since I was 7 or 8, and I am now convinced it runs through my blood. It really is my happy place. My childhood summer camp (this one) impacted my life in some significant ways growing up and I think I am who I am because of so many things I learned and the people I met while I was there.

I was reflecting on my experiences at overnight camp and day camp, both as camper and staff member, the other day in a class. There is an option to take the fourth year core course for Children's Studies (my major) in the summer as a month long trip to South Africa, working and learning in a rural community there. I can't even consider it because I will have a teaching placement for the whole time the trip will be happening, but many people from my class were pretty excited about the prospect. It struck me as strange when two girls asked if they would have internet and the teacher replied that they wouldn't and that the cell reception might be choppy too, and they immediately opted out. They just could not bear to be without the internet - even for this super amazing, once in a lifetime opportunity! I leaned over to my friend and said "wow, apparently summer camp taught me more than I thought..."

But then I really thought about it, and realized I have a whole bunch of life lessons that I learned at camp. Here are some that stand out to me now.

1. How to eat chocolate pudding with no hands in 3 seconds flat. Alright, I might not have attained quite that level of awesome-ness, but after nearly a decade of practice, you do get pretty good. And either way, you get messy - which, of course, is the point. If it seems too boring to cover yourself with pudding in the dining hall, feel free to move to the field and just have a war. Whatever floats your boat people! Camp is where I learned that it is perfectly OK to be crazy and weird and to just let go and have a good time without worrying about what everyone else thinks. Who cares if you are covered in chocolate pudding anyways, because we all know who is going to smell like chocolate at the end of it all! (We won't discuss how difficult it is to get pudding out of your hair and ears and clothing - that's a whole post on its own. Needless to say, most of us have acquired a pudding/ketchup/mustard fight shirt along the way).

My friend Nathan (PC) after a pudding fight

2. There is a camp song for EVERYTHING. Truly. Pretty much any life experience can relate to a camp song. Stuck on the subway? "I am slowly going crazy...." Craving fast food? "A pizza hut, a pizza hut..." Visit the Ripley's Aquarium? "Shark attack..." Need I go on?

3. To love nature. Spending your summers outside does that to you I think. I can still pick out a beech tree because the bark looks like elephant knees, and I love explaining to my cousins that the buzzing they hear on a hot summer day is the cicadas in the trees. As a kid I kind of laughed when the director at camp would always tell us to "be kind to the trees," explaining that when she was a kid they weren't there and it was horrible not having the shade. Then I grew up and moved to the city and it alllll made sense, because it's sad that there are no trees for shade and fresh air. I realized how much nature gives to us and how important it is to not just throw it all away.

4. How to work until you are exhausted and just keep going. I remember my aunt telling me one afternoon when I was about 13 that camp was where she learned how to work until she was exhausted and figure out how to keep going anyways. She said this while holding a newborn so I figured she probably had a solid point. I also remember sitting on my bed 3 years later, in the middle of a 2.5 hour long thunderstorm at about 3 AM with 8 campers (they were between 5 and 9 years old) lined up in a row, wide awake, and singing to them so they wouldn't cry and thinking "OHHHHHH, so this is what she was talking about - I GET it!"

5. To not waste. Camp is where I learned the true meaning of "reduce, reuse, and recycle." Whether it is in crafts class, for a game, or just pure function, almost everything can have another use. Empty juice jugs become water jugs to take to campfire, orange peels can be thrown in the fire to get rid of mosquitos, old coat hangers become sculptures in crafts class, etc.

6. The importance of developing new skills. I have so many skills that I learned at camp that some of my other friends don't have, and as a kid especially I remember feeling proud of those accomplishments. For one, I learned how to build a one-match-fire and I got really good at it (thanks Chortle and Allegro ;), which is a really useful skill to have! I also learned that air riflery is super fun and I'm pretty good at it - which I can guarantee I NEVER would have tried outside of camp. I learned how to cook tons of things over the fire, including mac n' cheese, pizza, sloppy joes, burgers, pancakes, fajitas, etc. And I can make a corn husk doll with my eyes closed, as well as steer a canoe (I am continually shocked at how many people can't do that!). Some of these skills are super random, like knowing how to tell if it's going to rain by the trees and the anthills, and pretty much all of them have proved useful at some point or another outside of camp. But most importantly, camp taught me the value in continually developing new skills as a person and that you are never done learning.

7. How long you can REALLY go without a shower. Because when you are busy making bracelets at free time and planning the evening program, or maybe going turtle hunting, nobody's got time for showering. It's much easier to just jump in the pool at the end of the afternoon and pretend like your hair isn't a greasy mess...or wash your hair in the pond at cabin time (makes your hair silky smooth ;). All you camp people reading this know what I'm talking about. Your morning beauty routine consists of brushing your teeth. I would feel very accomplished if I managed to wash my face and still make it to staff meeting on time. Of course the best thing is that when you do finally shower at camp, everyone comments on how great you look because you are so clean and radiant. That's all it takes! And then you have a campfire and run (just kidding guys, you should't run near the fire...right? ;) through the smoke to keep the bugs away and start over.

8. How to go off the grid. We only used our cell phones, lap tops, iPods, etc. on Saturdays during our day off. A whole summer of that (or even a week) clears your mind like nothing else. I felt like I could think so much more clearly, and all the garbage that is pushed at you all year through the radio, ads, or even just people at school could clear out of my mind and I could just be. I have since realized that people are so incredibly attached to their technological devices and it's really difficult for people to be completely removed from it. I will never forget a particular moment when we were making a giant sundae for the entire girl's division in eaves-troughs, and one of the parents who was working for just a week pulled out his phone to take a picture of me and said "when you are a grown up and sleep in your own cabin you get to break the rules because no one can stop you." I was frustrated for many reasons, mostly of course that he felt the need to mock me and the rest of the staff who were upholding these rules, but what really stood out to me was how sad it was. The moment was completely lost on him - here we were with 60 kids simultaneously eating a sundae when they normally would be in bed and they were having a blast in this magical moment and this person was taking a picture on his phone just to prove a point. Being so unattached from technology gives you the freedom to completely delve into those moments, to cultivate deeper relationships with kids, and to just have a break. Of course there is a time and place for everything, including technology, and I would be lying if I wasn't checking my phone as I sit here typing on my computer, while there is a film playing in front of me in my lecture (just keeping it real here). But the ability to just turn off your phone and relax, process, or visit with people can serve a very important function in our lives and can be very healthy in its own way.

9. How over the top consumer culture is. When you have no malls to go to, hear no advertisements, don't eat out, and just spend a summer living in nature, you come home and feel completely overwhelmed for a few weeks because it hits you all at once. Even now, I crave the simplicity of living at camp for a couple months.

10. What a great friend looks like. I am pretty sure that some of the greatest people on planet earth are camp people. There is nothing like being surrounded by a group of people who are supporting each other, who will pray for you constantly, and who will laugh with you. I have met some really wonderful people through camps, including, of course, my boyfriend Wes ;)

11. How to make my faith my own. Possibly the most significant thing I learned from camp over my life was and is about making my faith my own. I would recommend a leadership training program like the one I attended as a teenager to anyone just for the amazing personal growth it includes. But most of all, I learned who I was and why I believed what I did. I learned to make my beliefs mine and not to just follow what everyone else was doing. Camp is where I started reading my Bible and figuring out what was actually in there, and where I questioned how I lived and what it all meant to me. I had relationships with people who could help me when I had questions or needed encouragement, and who I could turn to with any prayer request or just to talk. I think it was a really important part of my journey as a Christian.