As college students, we are always looking for our summers to be that perfect balance of meaningful work, exciting play, and deep connection with others. A summer at Pine Cove hits all three. Here is 10 ways how:
1. It will teach you to let loose and dress like you don't care about anything.
Pine Cove is about showing joy. There is no room for trying to look cool. The cool people are the ones who don’t let their inhibitions get in the way of the opportunity to be the one person who a camper might actually feel free to be themselves around. So stand on chairs, cheer loudly, dance crazily. At Pine Cove, being a little weird is totally normal. Being totally weird makes you a champion.
2. It will teach you to let go.
At no point will your hour, day, week, month or summer go the way you expect it to. God works in ways that are bigger in scale and smaller in detail that you can imagine.
3. It will teach you to look for God in the little things.
Good food, a sunny day, a star-filled Texas night, a long shower, an unexpected hug, an hour-long conversation while washing dishes, a church or family doing your laundry, a kid telling you something about God which you, the adult, had never thought of. God speaks to our hearts in the smallest and most profound ways.
4. It will teach you what deserved rest looks like.
A Pine Cove Party don’t stop. Or at least, that is how it feel until it does actually stop. And whether it is your nights off, the daily nap time (yes, you get paid to take a nap) or your 24-hour uninterrupted break, when you crash, you will crash hard because you genuinely earned it.
5. It will teach you to use your words well.
At Pine Cove, we care about words. How we use them, when we use them, why we use them. You quickly learn how important words are. They can build you or break you. They name and define you. In stark contrast to a postmodern world where words carry no meaning, Pine Cove is a place where words evoke cheers, applause and joyful genuine tears.
6. It will teach you how to be a good friend.
When was the last time someone sat you down and asked you about your deepest and most exciting struggles, desires, joys and hopes? It can be so refreshing to be open, honest and free to talk about your passions. Not only that, it can be so exciting to hear the heart and passions of another millennial. Usually, these conversations are few and far in between, but I had the opportunity to have these kinds of conversations almost every day at camp. It is such a joy to genuinely know and be known by your peers. And there are 1,400 of them!
7. It will teach you about what you really value in life.
Life at camp is not glamorous. It is not easy. It is not clean. But after you have been at camp for a while, you begin to realize that there are a lot of things which you care about in your normal life that really aren't worthwhile. It is a priority shift. People, actions, growth and grace become the staples of your existence. Oh, and coffee. Coffee will quickly become something you genuinely value.
8. It will teach you how important mentor relationships are.
Very few of us actually take the time to mentor and be mentored anymore. It is a lost art. Here, it is impossible to escape. From senior counselors to program and work crew directors to full-time staff, you will have more people deeply invested in you while you are here than you most likely have ever had. And you get to invest in others as well! You are the big brother or big sister to a camper who genuinely needs a friend, a mentor and a role model.
9. It will teach you the value of being pushed beyond what you can handle as well as the value of failure.
“I’ll be fine. I can handle it.” This is a daily staple of my conversation while I'm at school. At camp, you will be handed more responsibility than you can handle, and you will mess up. But there is grace for mistakes and there are friends to help shoulder the weight. For me, this was the first time in my life when I was told that I would fail, did fail and walked away wiser, stronger and kinder for it.
10. It will teach you that you are more than your major, your sport, your school, your style and your plans.
As millennials, we have the tendency to live life without a particular purpose or direction, but Pine Cove strives to show people who they are in God, what their skills and gifts are and how they can best become the person who God has called them to be. My best friends at camp ranged from an African American meteorologist to a White Anglican trombone major, but everyone here is living for something bigger than themselves, whether you are an athlete or a nerd, an Aggie or a War Eagle, someone who has their life together or someone who is just looking to figure out what this life thing is about, Pine Cove is for you.
