For the past eighteen years, I have lived at home and had a space I could call my own. I was fortunate enough to have my own bedroom with a private connecting bathroom, and this was my sanctuary, my safe haven.
My bedroom was a place I could retreat to when I needed time to myself or invite five friends over, amp up the music and get ready for a night out together. It contained all my favorite things from my pink peonies to my personal photos - it was all me. Then came a dramatic shift, college dorms! I no longer have my own space. And I don’t have just one roommate; I have three. When I first thought about this experience, I didn't know if it would be unbelievably amazing or extremely scary.
Now let’s rewind, for seven years of my life, I spent my summers at my “home away from home”, aka, sleep-away camp! Looking back, I really do think my experience at sleep-away camp helped me prepare for certain aspects of college life.
At first glance, summer camp seems like a blissful seven weeks of constant fun and games, and it is, but at its depth and core, it truly does provide under the radar ways that help facilitate college life in the long run.
Every summer at camp, I lived with twelve girls, give or take, from all different states and backgrounds. It was smooth and peaceful most of the time, minus the few “mandatory” bunk meetings. My last summer I spent at camp, I lived with 24 girls, and that was a completely different experience.
Starting at a young age, I had to learn to live with other people and how to make this seven-week living situation enjoyable. The sleep-away camp provided me with a way to learn from the vastly different, but honestly similar situation of college.
Camp consisted of constant interaction between me and my bunkmates, along with a few petty arguments here and there. With all of this, I learned how to navigate direct communication efficiently.
I learned that no matter what happens, you still have to live together and never want to live with any negative energy around. Learning how to interact and live with all kinds of different personalities is something not everyone gets to experience, but I feel has been helpful for college dorm living.
Now let's talk supervision. Although counselors are most definitely present at camp, (otherwise my friends and I would have gotten away with a lot more), we as campers still learn to be very independent. Through the years, the counselors turn roles from the feeling of the mom to big sister, to confidant friend. We had no choice other than to get out of our comfort zone and learn to do things on our own and for ourselves.
College is an entirely new experience of learning. Once again, I learned more about myself and becoming more independent. Without learning from my camp experience to become somewhat self-sufficient when I was younger, I don’t know how I would survive in a different state without a small level of comfort.
Camp and college have way more than just a “C" in common - I could talk about how fun they both are, but that’s a whole other topic for another article...
