Dear My 14 Year Old Campers,
To much of your disbelief, I was once your age too. No, this is not me trying to lecture you about the do’s and don’ts of your journey into high school. But for two or four weeks, I watched over you and I feel as though I am able to say I am a large influence on the decisions you will make moving forward in your lives. Although your favorite thing is to constantly remind me about how I am only three years older than you, those three years will give you more depth of life than ever imaginable. When the idea of high school comes up, some of you will be nervous and others a little too confident in yourselves. However, this camp wouldn't have been interesting without the individuality of each and every one of you. Every night I would hug you goodnight and tell you sweet dreams, when what I secretly wanted to say is you have the potential to be anything you want to be. I am lucky enough to see each and every one of you embrace the beauty of camp and discover the same beauty that it brings out in you all.
As the days flew by, you all blossomed and grew in ways you never thought possible, whether you were aware of it or not. You confessed to me that you set up the entire dining hall during your free time. You included the quiet girl in the corner to play a game of cards with you. You filled up my water bottle without me even asking. You cried as you held your best friends on change day, holding on as if you were to never let go. You gave back what camp has given to you, and I could not be prouder. Although much of what I am about to say was presented to you in indirect forms, I hope you are able to remember this when you are away.
To answer the question you were so curious about, the one rare picture of a guy on my wall was not my boyfriend, I can assure you he is just a friend. This brings me to the point of reminding you that you are not entitled to be with anyone these next four years. Do not expect to stay with the person you are with now, because if he doesn’t have the decency to write you back then trust me, he is not worth keeping. You get all nervous when the subject of love is brought up, which is good because you should treat the relationships you might encounter with the feeling of butterflies in your stomach and the tendency to dart your eyes down. I cannot stress enough that the person you are at camp is the person that they should see, not some made up version behind a wall of Instagram posts and overly filtered VSCO's. You are so much more than that.
You are the girls that sing at the top of your lungs on table tops, jump off the tower and shout random categories, fearlessly throw yourselves into a sailboat with no sailing experience, put temporary tattoos on your foreheads, wear tutus to breakfast for no reason, scream at the sound of all camp cookouts and smother your faces with chocolate chip pudding. You may leave this behind when the end of the session is over, but you will never be able to look at moose tracks the same way again. That little part of you will long to be back sitting in our cabin, laughing at the spread of chocolate smeared across your faces.
It’s the little things that will constantly remind you of your lives back at camp. Here's the thing — everything you are and everything you believe in does not have to be confined to a two week period every summer. As much as people differentiate the divide between reality and camp life, you are essentially able to bring who you are and what have you learned with you. Under the pines it is easy to be yourself without the pressures of technology, social media, boys, school, parents, sports and other activities. But who gave these things the right to dictate the way you pursue yourselves? The confidence that shines through every one of you should never dull down due to the expectations of society. This is your opportunity to redefine the way you can truly present yourselves, and encourage those who haven't experienced the nature of camp. Because when will you truly be able to explain camp to someone who hasn’t been before?
Those bare faced grins, dirty feet and genuine outbursts of laughter is the presence of your happiness. There is no ultimatum to the way you will continue to feel throughout your years at camp, so please do not give up on it because you have become too old. Eight years later and I look up at the stars and gaze with amazement as if it was my first time ever seeing them. Indulge in what years you may have left here, and promise me that you will never give up on yourselves, because you are the reason I keep on coming back to camp. Got along without you before I met you, can’t get along without you now.
With Love,
Your Counselor Julia Fontaine
