One of my favorite things about being a counselor during the non-summer months is being pen-pals with my campers. Today I got a letter in the mail from Maddie, one of my Warrior girls this past summer. In my last letter to her I sent a list of 10 things I love about camp and challenged her to make a list of 100. She pulled through and her list is awesome.
1a. counselors like you
1b. making new friends
2. seeing old friends
3. counselors
4. the Longhouse
5. lake time
6. blob time
7. clinics
8. chapel
9. bus rides
10. shower time
11. breakfast in bed
12. walking to the lake
13. having weird conversations with friends
14. having funny conversations with counselors
15. pop stop
16. trying to make friendship bracalets
17. failing when trying to make bracalets
18. spelling bracalet wrong? I don't know
19. inspiring others to condition their eyebrows
20. when you finally arrive on the 1st day
21. the kind of nervous/excited feeling you get
22. getting emails
23. not having electronics
24. not caring what people think of you
25.devotions
26. really long prayers when you can't sleep
27. waking up to music
28. chapel songs stuck in your head
29.skywalkers
30. the woodchuck that lives near the Longhouse
31. no homework
32. Sarah's quilt
33. Ellyn's Rugrats blanket
34. those blue shirts the counselors have to wear
35. Wolf Shirt Wednesday
36. John Amy's lake speech
37. trying to get on the Saturn
38. accidentally pulling Kat's pump
39. how happy EVERYTHING is
40. how nice Joel is
41. the Richard G. Marsh lake challenge
42. everyone running to cereal after grace
43. Mafiya
44. running charades
45. not worrying about anything
46. gaga
47. tetherball
48. carpetball
49. how all counselors love Diet Coke
50. opening campfire costumes
51. picking which bed you want
52. getting super close to people who used to be strangers
53. pool time
54. the rope at the pool
55. the high dive competition
56. salad bars
57. counselors that have accents
58. seeing where people come from at opening campfire
59. flagpole
60. when people share their care packages
61. seeing your counselor again after their night off
62. cabin photos
63. Choctaw
64. ^ especially when it's your cabin (clap, clap)
65. bible verses around the cabin
66. when that one counselor (Tom? Tommy?) raps
67. songfest
68. when Sarah's friend that's getting married licks your elbow at songfest
69. how intense color wars is
70. having 3 counselors (Kasellyn-- Kat and Sarah and Ellyn)
71. falling off the blob before you get blobbed
72. being hopper
73. camp tshirts
74. the photographers
75. when the photographers come near you and you pretend not to see them but secretly you're modeling
76. the Nature Center
77. identifying tufted titmouses and morning doves
78. the OT
79. stayover weekend
80. seeing your old counselors
81. trying new things
82. village photos
83. trying to find yourself in village photos
84. setting goals for yourself
85. achieving those goals
86. Accipiter
87. colorful sunglasses
88. the friendship bench
89. hobo dinners
90. the cooking staff
91. how happy everybody is
92. sleep-outs
93. inside jokes
94. devotions outside
95. check in
96. losing your button everyday
97. God moments
98. when you have a lot of highs and no lows
99. being third
100. EVERYTHING (typical)
The 1 Thing I don't like about camp
1. leaving
2. nothing else
When I'm not a counselor to phenomenal kids like Maddie, I get to be a Wyld Life and Young Life leader in HSE. I love it. Every week I show up to Campaigners with my girls or we dress up in costumes for Club. We go to dinner together, I cheer them on at their games and we find time to talk about everything that's going on. We do life together.
We've outgrown Mama Bear's which is sad, but we're really excited about Wyld Life's new location for this year. We're meeting at the home of Connie and Mark-- new members of the Young Life family. It's just so... homey... when you meet in someone's home.
Wyld Life is for just 7th and 8th graders which means we have a huge turnover every year as our oldest kids all move up to Young Life. We're excitedly getting to know all the new 7th graders, welcoming them into this community. Tonight in our small group a few girls told us that they thought you had to be invited to show up here-- we want to do a great job of inviting our friends but we also want people to feel comfortable just coming. Everyone is invited.
I'm so excited that we've got our own Camp T family in the midst of the Wyld Life fam. Sarah, Hadley, Julia, Brooke, Ellison and Olivia all appreciate blue bands, getting your picture on the camp website, the walk to the Richard G, friendship bracelets from FAB and Thursday night cook outs in the Riv. I love that our lives overlap like this.
These are some of our HS leaders this year-- Juniors and Seniors that are choosing to show up and spend time with Junior High kids because of their relationship with God. We get out of things what we put into them and we're thankful for the time and energy and heart they're investing.
Girls like Rachel and Julia have been a huge part of my story since I moved to Fishers just over six years ago. I love seeing the people they're becoming and how sometimes you just know you're supposed to be friends with people. They both point me back to Christ and help me be my best self. I love that they get to have that role in these little girls' lives now too.
Tonight Julia, Anne and I sat in a circle with twelve 7th and 8th grade girls. We talked about what it would be like to be with Jesus and how he says that everyone is in. We laughed... a lot. We made new friends. We had five different schools represented. We talked about our hopes and dreams for Wyld Life this year. One of the 7th graders prayed for us to close it out and it was beautiful.
Honorable Blog Title:
"I'd go to Chipotle because that seems like the Wyld Life and white girl thing to do."
"My best friends are the Baker twins. Louise and Bethany. Except those aren't their names."
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