Today we woke up and it wasn't week one like Ellyn predicted. It was just Saturday of week 9... the end of camp and life as we know it. Not trying to be overly dramatic here but we're in the midst of a very dramatic transition from life at Tecumseh to life in the real world.
No more living next to Ellyn in the best lofted bunks in the best cabin in the world.
No more "meet your counselor" signs and love tank bags.
No more CILT counselor pictures and fun signs right when you walk in the door.
No more quotes on the walls and bathrooms mirrors or bible verses in the bathroom stalls.
Our campers packed up all their stuff and then we headed to breakfast in the Main Lodge one more time. We were so excited when we got to chapel and found out that they were doing Enoch. The creative twist has made it one of my favorite Saturday chapels this year and today they added a very special turkey-- Maggie!
Enoch was such an important message for both campers and counselors to hear today as we head back home. Here we get to be the best version of ourselves. Soon we will be put in situations where we are tempted to be someone else, to make decisions that wouldn't be good for us, to say things that don't build others up. But we were created for great things, we were made to be awesome and we shouldn't diminish that by blending in to everyone else. One of my favorite verses has always been, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may find what is that good and perfect will of God." I pray that we'd be about that life of transformation back at home.
Our girls checked out quickly this morning and it was so sad to say good-bye to our very last group of girls. I loved playing with Erin and her cabin mates all week. Abby brought her mom and dad to the Longhouse to meet me and I was so excited to see her one last time.
Alice came over to get my address so we can keep being pen-pals this year. Then I was SO EXCITED when Rain, a session 3 CILT, showed up. She came with her mom to pick up her younger sister Payton. I've missed this girl and it was so good to see her even if it was only for a little while.
Ellyn and I packed up and moved out everything from Choctaw. It's so strange to see it completely empty. The whole summer staff meets in the River lodge for lunch which is fun because it's the first meal we've eaten with just the counselors since staff training. After we finished everyone was assigned jobs all over camp to clean, put things away and get camp ready for the groups that will start coming in on Monday. I got to be with a crew of people reading this week's Parent Letters.
Tonight was our staff banquet, a gathering of all the resident staff, day camp counselors, full time and support staff. Everyone gets dressed up and it's so strange to see people in "fancy" clothes with their hair not in ponytails or french braids. It's a time to thank people for what they've done and to look back on the past ten weeks. It's been a whirlwind.
These ten weeks are what I look forward to all year long. Then in just the blink of an eye another summer is finished. I love this place with every bit of who I am and have no idea who I would be without the experiences I've had and the people I've met here. I may only get to be here for ten weeks each summer but we pack a whole lot of life into that time.
It's here at camp that I learned it's okay to be myself. That God made me uniquely and beautifully his and that I don't need to change or ever pretend to be somebody else. Sometimes that means I'm a little weird or that I do things differently but I wouldn't change it.
It's here at camp that I learned to love other people. As a kid I learned to love my counselors as I spent all summer following them around. They taught me about fun and faith and adventure and community by modeling it and living it out. As a counselor I learned to love my campers. Week after week my dad told the staff, "Love those kids!" And that's exactly what we do. I have loved my campers with every bit of energy and heart that I've got. Sometimes it's really hard when I'm exhausted or they won't stop asking questions-- but even then, I still love them.
It's here at camp that I learned that my friends don't have to be exactly like me. It was in CILTs and my years on Day Camp that I was really changed. I found friends that cared about me and loved me and made me a better person. Those friends were different than the people I'd grown up with and many of them were so different than me. But we loved each other and they became the main characters of my life.
These days the counselors are still some of my very best friends. They're people like Liz, Jamie Z and Alex that I've met in just the last few summers. They're people like Smooney, Ellyn, Chrissy, Annie, Alli, Mags and Molls that were my campers to start with but have become my best friends and the rocks in my life. I can't imagine going through this summer, or life, without them.
It's here at camp that I learned to be intentional about being silly and creating whimsy. No where else do people live life to this extreme. This summer I painted the faces of campers for the heck of it. We flew kites during Trading Post. We dressed in red, white and blue for a whole week. I fell in love with a stuffed animal cat named Max just because my 16 year old campers loved it so much. We woke up girls in the middle of the night with donuts. We carried around speakers and got all the CILTs to learn the words of Space Jam. I went trick or treating in June. We made a fort inside the cabin with 30 CILT girls. We lived life to the full.
It's here at camp that I learned God wants a personal relationship with me. I grew up in the church but I really learned about God while I was sitting in the Green Cathedral every summer day of my childhood. The words of the chapel songs and the verses counselors talked about on stage shaped what I thought about God and faith.
It was under the stars of Main Field, looking out at kids playing during Trading Post time and sitting in a circle during devotions every night that my faith grew stronger. There's no doubt in my mind that God is alive and at work in my life and in the lives of people around me. Every summer as a CILT counselor my faith as continued to grow and mature as I get to engage these high school kids in conversations about faith and what that looks like in their lives.
It's here at camp that I learned that you can always improve. Tecumseh is one of the leading camps in the country in regards to facilities, staff, programming and camper return rates. Even though we're so successful we have the attitude that we can still improve and change things and make this place better. In CILTs I've tried to work with my co-counselors to continually improve what we do.
This summer we introduced life maps, CILT jar challenges, new devotions and activities. At the end of the week every camper and counselor chooses a bead or quality from the Sagamore Creed to focus on during the coming year. This summer I chose both trust and friendship. I want to work on trusting God with his plans for my life. I want to focus on my home team and love them well rather than spreading myself too thin.
It's here at camp that I learned to put others before myself. It's part of the I'm 3rd motto and easier said than done. I'm not perfect at it by any means, but I'm learning more and more each year how to live my life for other people instead of for myself. I want to do things that will make other people's days better and their loads lighter. I want to invest in relationships because they matter the most.
It's here at camp that I learned to live with joy. While happiness is based on your circumstances, joy is independent of those things. Joy is a choice. True joy comes only from Christ. I want to chose joy everyday and for my life to point back to Christ. I know it's possible to live life like this, to chose joy even when it's not easy because I see people doing it here all the time.
We heard from Village Directors, Jordan, Joel and Scott during the banquet tonight. Each of them, in their own way, have done a phenomenal job of leading camp this summer. The highlight of the night was watching the staff video that Bobby put together. He takes footage all summer long and than cuts it down to a manageable size. We sat and watched clips from all through the summer that took us back to memories of moments and kids. I loved it.
The last official thing we do is circle up to sing the Tecumseh one last time and close in prayer. While we sing you look around at the people who have been your family all summer, and many of them for several summers before. For the past ten weeks we have gotten to be real life, every day, from wake up to sun down kind of friends. We've seen each other sweaty in Main Field and covered in mud on the way to the lake. We've stayed up late talking after our kids went to sleep and collapsed into laughter with our campers. These are our people.
Everyone scatters after the banquet to go home or to spend one more night with friends. Smooney and I decided to take a spontaneous adventure. We jumped in the car and drove North to Nina's (one of the girls I was with at YL camp in Georgia) lake house. She was going to be there with Katlyn and Emily, two session 3 CILTs and her family. The girls didn't know we were coming so we got to jump out and surprise them when they pulled into the driveway. Surprises are my favorite.
I've missed all of these girls so much and couldn't think of anything I would rather do on my last night with Smooncat. We slept in a tent in the front yard, complete with a mattress and a lamp, and stayed up way too late talking and laughing. After a summer filled with campers and friends and adventures I'm glad the last night ended the same way.
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