From third grade through my senior year of high school, every July my parents would send me away to a camp called Summer's Best Two Weeks (SB2W). Summer's Best is a Christian sports camp in Boswell, Pennsylvania (AKA the middle of nowhere). At this camp, there are two teams: Galatians (woot! woot!) and Romans. They compete against each other in multiple activities over the two week term. For me, camp was like taking a break from the "real world." I spent my time having fun, competing and creating deeper relationships with my counselors, other campers and especially Christ. I miss Summer's Best dearly, and here are 15 reasons why:

1. Theme Nights

Anything goes ... the more outrageous your outfit, the better.

2. No Technology

I hated this rule in middle school. However, as I got older, I started to appreciate taking a break from being "plugged in" all the time. It is refreshing. Everyone actually speaks to each other! It is also funny when you get your phone back and you feel like you've almost forgotten how to use it.

3. Embarrassing Dancing

At Summer's Best Two Weeks, there is a night called Surprise Night. This is a theme night that is supposed to be kept a secret until the day of, but somehow it always seemed to get leaked. This night culminates with the whole camp gathering for a giant dance party. I have never seen so much Napoleon Dynamite-esque dancing in my life...

4. Arts and Crafts

Crafts at camp was more like middle school woodshed with paint ... this was arguably the most laid-back activity at camp. The task was always to turn a block of wood into a game or puzzle that you would never use once you leave camp. I still have a puzzle, two tic-tac-toe games and one penny soccer board sitting on a shelf in my room...

5. Inside Jokes

Laughter is one of the easiest ways to bring people together. I guess it comes naturally to me, because my camp counselors and cabin mates always felt that I brought the cabin together with my humor (I'm a trip sometimes). When you are in a cabin with 11 other people for two weeks, someone is bound to say something funny ... when they do, you will never let it die.

6. Circle Pizza Night (Twice!)

Pizza!Yaaaas! Circle pizzas are little coaster sized pizzas. They taste just like any other pizza, but yet they are one of the most beloved meals at camp.

7. It's Weird if You DON'T Eat a Lot

After running around all day swimming, doing competitions and various other activities, it would be strange if you didn't feel like you could eat a cow.

8. Pulling Pranks

For the second half of my career as a camper, I began enlisting my cabin mates to help me prank our counselors at least once during the term. I think my favorite one was one year when we put our counselor's mattress in the rafters. The look on her face was priceless! What can I say? I am clearly a younger sibling.

9. No Judgement

The weirder, the better!

10. Seeing Camp Friends Every Year

Camp friendships are those friendships where you only get to see each other for two weeks a year, yet you pick up right where you left off without missing a beat.

11. The Love-Hate Relationship with Overnight Trips

White water rafting and hiking are fun, sleeping on a pallet under a tarp tied between two trees in the middle of the woods is not.

12. Complaining about how it rains every year on girls' trips

As if sleeping under a tarp wasn't bad enough, the rain made all the firewood wet and the campground muddy, and our tent was open on two sides. Seriously, in my 10 years, I think there was only one time when it didn't rain on overnight trips.

13. Competition

Theres is nothing quite like being a part of a team and giving your all in competition for the glory of God. Competition at camp was awesome because everyone was competitive, but they were also good sports. We would compete against each other on the field, but then we would go back to our cabin or our next activity and hang out together. It's the kind of sportsmanship where you can play as hard as physically possible for opposing teams, and then have no hard feelings afterwards. This is one thing I haven't seen enough of outside of camp.

14. Endless movie quotes and references

" Mean Girls," "She's the Man," "Harry Potter," any Disney movie... you named it, and I promise someone could quote the entire thing to you.

15. Finding my long lost twin

Just kidding ... I wish. What's that? You like Oreos and peanut butter too? Hmm, maybe I do have a twin.

Oh the nostalgia... Thanks for the best 10 summers of my life SB2W.