I have finally finished camp and have been home since Saturday evening. I've had some time to process camp as a whole and just reflect on what the Lord did for me there.
I worked at Cherokee Scout Reservation which is a camp for the Boy Scouts of America. I was surrounded by boys pretty much all day besides the few females that worked there. I thought it would be terrible at first, I mean what girl in her right mind would want to be around a bunch of boys all dang day, but I soon found a love for these boys and many of them were super awesome!
Some of the things I absolutely adored about camp this summer:
1. Camp fires: They are so much fun, especially when we got to dance which was every camp fire. Camp fire at Cherokee is a time that the entire camp comes together at the council ring (kinda like a mini amphitheater) and do skits, introductions, awards, etc. Being able to just dance freely without worrying about technique and just having fun is so refreshing. Some people couldn't believe that I was a dance major by the way I danced at camp fires. Oh well!
2. Big Three: This is the name that my two original Handicraft staff decided to give us. It makes us sound more intimidating than we really are. Ha! I have thoroughly enjoyed being able to work with Ashley and Daniel. They are such amazing people and our bonds were crazy. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have survived Handicraft without either of them. We even took our own little adventure to Outpost, which is an old campsite on the other side of waterfront that isn't used anymore. Rumor has it, that Outpost water is the best water at camp. I didn't taste it, but it was nice and cold though. The memories and laughs that I had with Daniel and Ashley are so very precious to me.
3. Scouts: I absolutely adored the scouts that I got to meet and interact with. I got to experience about every age group, the good the bad, and even the special needs kids. I can say that my favorite campers were those who were special needs. Seeing them make something and knowing that THEY made it was so awesome! I got to work with an autism scout and he just melted my heart and so did all of the other ones. There were also a few other scouts that made a huge impact on me and just made my experience at camp a memorable one.
4. Staff: The staff at camp were so much fun. Remind you, the majority were first years, just like me, in high school, and boys. Regardless, I learned to love them and to form relationships with them. It's funny to look back on Staff weekend, where NO ONE talked to me, and then now I'm friends with everyone on staff. God really does bring people together. It's cool too to see how my relationships grew with different people and how they impacted me. Now some of my relationships with some people were definitely interesting, but I wouldn't trade them for anything.
5. Snow White: The Camp Director's little 3-year old girl nicknamed me Snow White because according to her, I was. It was absolutely precious because it took her till about week 4 to start talking to me and she would tell her Mommy, "Mommy, look there's Snow White!" as she points to me. She's just so darn cute! It was fun being that girl that little Abby looked up to and wanted to dance with at Camp fires! I sure am going to miss that sweet little girl!
6. Living in a tent: Yes, I lived in a tent for 7 weeks and I kind of miss it now. I lucked out in not having a tent mate for the summer, so I got a whole tent to myself and it was very nice. I learned to live with spiders, or actually kill them with a broom before I went to sleep. I adjusted to sleeping outside in a calm night and in stormy nights. The best memory of living in a tent was when I got back from some event one night and found a dang mouse in my tent. It freaked me out because all I could think of was me sleeping and that mouse somehow climbing into my bed. I was so freaked out that I even had a male staff member come and investigate and reassure me that the mouse indeed would not be able to climb into my bed whatsoever...oh the joys of living in a tent!
There are many many more things that I loved about camp, but I just can't think of them now. Camp was an amazing experience and I wouldn't trade it for anything. The life-long friends that I made and the memories to accompany them are priceless!
