This year, the two-week Resident Assistant training on campus brought the return of camp. No, not the Met exhibit (unfortunately). I mean honest-to-goodness Parent Trap-style camp.
I had vague, somewhat repressed recollections of 2017's trip to Iroquois Springs, and I wasn't exactly thrilled to return. After all, New York is my campus – that is, New York City – and I would have preferred a day trip to, say, Central Park before an all-out sleeping bag ordeal, but I tried to make the best of it.
The highlight of the trip was Sneetches, a staff ice breaker activity that might be better described as ice-shattering.
The name comes from Dr. Seuss's book of the same title, and both the story and the activity aim to remind us all that our differences are precisely what make us invaluable.
We went around the circle, each of us answering question after question. No one insisted on qualification or justification. Our answers were our own with which to wrestle in our own minds, interpreting and responding each in unique and thought-provoking ways. I can only attempt to describe what I might call a simultaneous comfort and vulnerability that was established – that is always established – in the success of this activity.
I thought I'd list just a few of the questions for you now. Ask your friends. Ask your coworkers. Ask your family. Ask your partner. But perhaps most importantly, ask yourself. I don't think we get enough opportunity to really reflect on both the abstract and the concrete in our day-to-day lives. Sneetches gives me this opportunity each year, and I'm grateful for it…even if it means going back to camp.
- Name one movie of which you wish you could change the ending. How would you shoot the alternate ending scene?
- What gives you chills?
- If you could relive one day of your life, which would it be?
- Name a time you knew there was someone or something watching over you?
- What's the best compliment you've ever received?
- What's the best compliment you've ever given?
- If you could go back and change one thing about your life, what would it be?
- How would your life change (if at all) if there was absolutely no chance at any kind of afterlife?
- What makes your day?
- What's your ideal superpower?
- What's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?
- What did you learn about yourself today?
