1. You're going to be tired. All of the time.
There will be days where you have to wake up earlier than you're comfortable with after going to bed way later than what's healthy. You may be in a room with someone who snores or sleep talks or who needs a fan on to sleep which makes the already cold room even colder. You'll find yourself taking naps where ever you possibly can, whenever you possibly can. You will be on your feet for the entire time you're awake, save a few hours, and you will definitely be feeling it. You may have to lift more weight than you ever have before and your muscles will hate you for it.
2. You will probably get sick.
You'll be spending day in and day out surrounded by other people and living in tight quarters with them. Your body will be worn out and it may shut down. You will most likely get sick at least once, even if you try your hardest to stay on top of your health. It's basically inevitable.
3. You are forced to eat the same meal over and over again.
New week, new campers, same food. You will have the menu memorized for the week and you will have that one favorite meal, but you will most likely hate most of it. It's good once, don't get me wrong, but a person can only eat enchiladas or quesadillas or pork chops so many times. By the end of the second week, you'll be craving Taco Bell.
4. The showers.
They will always be way too cold.
5. You have to spend every single day with the same people.
You'll have a few awkward days in the beginning where no one really knows each other, except for those few people who are weirdly close because they came from the same hometown which makes you feel even more uncomfortable.
You'll have to eat with these people and sleep with these people and struggle with these people. You'll all be tired together, which is both a blessing and a curse.
You'll cry with these people and laugh with them and dance with them and do life with them. They will slowly turn into your family and you will love them with everything you have inside of you. You'll find yourself putting off sleep just to spend time with them. You will want to be around them at all times.
You will find a best friend. You will find someone, or maybe multiple people, who understand you in way that is so unique. You will find those people who push you closer to God and push you to be the best version of yourself you can possibly be. You'll tell them your life story, and they'll give you encouragement. They'll love you just as much as you love them.
6. You will fall in love.
It may be with a person or it may be with a place, but it will happen.
7. You'll find home.
You will get to this point where you are so in love with everything and everyone around you that it will become your home. You will literally experience Heaven on Earth and it will fill you with so much joy. You'll find yourself never wanting to leave and never wanting to resume normal life. People will ask if you're excited to go home, and you'll be confused or a little sad because you're already there and you never want to go back to the real world.
8. You will have to leave.
This one takes the cake, that's for sure.
You'll be counting down the days you have left with your new family and dreading the end. That last week will be difficult because each activity is the last one. You'll try to fit as many memories as you can in those last few days, but it will seem like you just can't do it.
The day you leave will come, and you'll be a mess. You'll cry a lot and hug a lot and it will seem so overly sentimental, but you'll love it. You may cry because you didn't get to say goodbye to that one person who really had the biggest impact on you and it may seem awful because you're never going to see these people again, or it won't be the same when you do see them.
9. You'll have to return to reality.
You'll find yourself missing being tired or missing the cold showers or missing the snoring and the cold room and the terrible food. You'll miss even the smallest things about the camp, like the way there was never really any toilet paper in stalls or the way the sun looked as it set across the lake.
You'll miss the community. Yeah, you'll miss the people individually, but you'll definitely miss the group a lot and the way you had 40 other people to fall back on at any time.
Technology will be weird for a little bit. You'll find yourself leaving your phone places because you really don't need it. You won't even have a desire to sit and watch Netflix like you used to because there is so much out in the world to experience.
You'll miss your best friends. You'll find yourself planning out trips over fall break, winter break, spring break, and even the summer to go visit the people who played a part in changing your life. It won't really matter to you that it's a 14-hour drive because what will be waiting for you at the end of the trip will be so worth it.
You'll struggle with adapting to the real world. Being with family will be great, but your heart will ache to return to camp. You'll find yourself only talking about camp for months. You'll talk about your camp friends so much that your friends back home will know their names, what they look like, and little details about them.
You'll find yourself missing camp so much that you'll forget real life is still happening. You'll miss experiences or conversations or quality time with the people back home simply because your heart longs to go back to camp. You'll be so caught up in those camp friends that your friendships back home will suffer. You'll start cutting people from your life because they just don't make you feel that same way that your camp friends did or because you wouldn't be proud to introduce them to your camp friends.
Reality is hard and all you'll want to do is go back home where your heart feels so happy and full and content.
Working at a summer camp is hard. There's really no doubt about it. But you will find yourself so in love with the way it makes you feel that it doesn't even matter. It will be one of the most rewarding experiences you have ever gone through and you'll find yourself constantly thanking God for giving you such an amazing opportunity.
You'll grow a lot in your faith because you will have to rely on God with everything you have in you in a way you never have before. You will turn to Him for strength each day. You will turn to Him for patience each day. You will turn to Him and ask Him to lead the conversations you'll have and the relationships you have. You will be surrounded by the beauty of His creation and it will truly alter your life for the better.
You'll find yourself so overwhelmed by His glory and His love and the experience you had that everything else in your life pales in comparison.
You'll find yourself planning out your next summer around camp; because there are no way you'll ever be able to go without it after experiencing it once.
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#blest by the rad guys and gals on Lake Champion's second session
Miss you all each and every day and I am so pumped for our reunion.
