There are a million different articles on why parents should send their child to sleepaway camp and why sleepaway camp is the best years of so and so's life, but until you experience first-hand what summer camp does to you as a person the articles won't make sense. But I'm going to add to the articles because this is my story.

I started at eight years old HATING it since the moment I stepped off the bus at Camp Westmont in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania, but then around the third week something special happened, the girls in my bunk didn't terrify me anymore they actually became my friends, the thought of not seeing my parents until July for only a couple of hours didn't terrify me anymore, it made me excited that I had all this freedom (within reason of course), and the thought of getting letters from my mom telling me all about her summer without me didn't upset me anymore it made me grateful I wasn't there enduring her boring summer. It was the moment that I realized that I had friends, freedom, and a not boring summer that this place in the middle of nowhere wasn't as bad as I had made it seem.

I spent summer after summer at this amazing place making new friends, trying new activities, and having the time of my life. I spent every summer until I was 16 with my friends and loved every minute of it. At age 16 you are the oldest division on camp meaning the next year you were going to have to step down from your role as camper into your new role as JC or junior counselor.

Of course the minute they sent the contracts to all us new JC's, I was one of the first to sign, not even having to think about if I wanted to take on this new role, as long as I was spending the summer at my favorite place I would do anything. I prepared all year for what I would do if I was disappointed with the division I got, or if I would have the campers I OD'd for and how I would keep myself from telling them until they got there.

Until I got to camp I was so excited for what the summer held with my new position among the staff members. Until I got to camp I didn't know what was going to happen. Until I got to camp I didn't realize my mental health had worsened to the point that once I got to camp, my favorite place in the world, I couldn't enjoy it.

Camp was ripped away from me the summer of 2017, when I had to leave after only two weeks and fly back to Florida because I wasn't capable of being there when my brain had left me high and dry. The things that used to make me happy made me cry and the things that made me cry like thinking about the end of the summer made me happy because I couldn't wait to leave this place. I didn't know what was going on and my doctors were all the way in Florida and couldn't do anything until I could come home and tell them everything that was happening in my head.

Eventually through a really rough senior year of high school, I started to find joy in the things that used to give me joy again and I was able to start college in the summer of 2018, just like we had always planned but something felt off still. Yeah I was better but I wasn't okay. I wasn't okay because I never got to say a proper goodbye to my favorite place, I wasn't able to spend the last nights of camp crying with my best friends because it was over and then having to have conversations with my parents about wanting to start college in the fall like everyone else and have another summer at my favorite place.

Until now, I felt a hole in my heart in the shape of Camp Westmont. But as soon as I realized I had nothing to do this summer my brain automatically went to camp. After discussing with my parents and deciding I am finally healthy enough to spend the summer at camp again and calling the camp office for them to tell me they would love to have me back I signed the contract and made it official Summer 2019 would be my return to finish what I couldn't finish my JC summer.

I am forever grateful to Camp Westmont for giving me the friends that everyone wishes they could have and for giving me another chance to have one last summer at my favorite place (maybe who knows I may go back forever).

V'16 I love you