As an eight year old, saying goodbye to my day camp I had gone to since I was a baby and saying hello to sleep away camp wasn’t as nerve racking as you would think. For some reason I felt more than ready to live away from home for 8 weeks. After all, I did have my big sister working as a counselor just up the hill. During the weeks leading up to my first summer at sleep away camp I was excited to make new friends, sing all the cheesy songs my sister has taught me, and do all the activities the camp has to offer. Yet if you look at my letters I sent home from that summer you would see a ton of “I hate it here” and “ I want to come home!” As a matter of fact, you would see that in my letters from all 10 summers of camp. So if I hated it that much why did I continue to go back? And why does it say I wish I could be a camper again in the title of this article? Well the answer is pretty simple, I was a pessimist.

Why I wish I appreciated summer camp more when I was a camper and wish I could do it all over again:

When I was a camper I only focused on the bad silly things, like when a girl in my bunk stole my shampoo or my crush didn’t invite me to "banquet." What I should have been focusing on is how lucky I was to be in a place where everyone’s job there is literally to make sure I am happy and having fun. Everything we did was designed to make me smile. I had a whole eight weeks with no stress or responsibility. I spent all day making arts and crafts, swimming, and hanging with my friends. I didn’t fully appreciate camp until my very last summer. I wish I had taken a step back, looked around and realized how lucky I was. My middle school years I even used to skip my activities. Now if I could go someplace and do nothing but arts and crafts, lake activities, or even instructional athletics (which I used to HATE) I would be beaming with happiness.

(I'm the one in the green sweatshirt, ecstatic about being at athletics.)

Why camp taught me the most valuable lessons I will ever learn

Some things we learned were obvious. For example as a camper, my camp made me clean the bunk every morning. Each camper was assigned a job like mopping, sweeping, or making sure the clothing lines were neat. We were also responsible for making our beds, and making sure our cubbies were tidy. I hated this! My friends and I would try and rebel against our counselors and say that they were violating child labor laws for making us change our sheets. Now I’m so glad that they made me do this because I have learned respect for my living space, my possessions, and I can apply the cleaning skills to my adult life. Other things that I learned weren’t so obvious until now. I learned how to live with others. In camp, you share basically one big room and a bathroom with 15 to 30 other girls. This teaches you patience, tolerance, respect for other people, and their needs, and how to deal with other people’s quirks and things that bother you.

I also learned a love and respect for the environment by living basically out side for an entire summer and by being forced to “human rake” (pick up garbage/litter around camp). Camp also teaches you to face your fears, weather that’s completing the ropes course or dealing with bugs. And of course you learn new skills like archery or beading. But the greatest lesson of all is how to be confident; being able to be silly and goofy with out caring what other people think. I learned this during evening activities where we would often dress up in silly costumes and put on skits in front of the whole camp. All while having a blast.

All in all, camp was an amazing time. It's something everyone should experience. The bonds and friendships I made at camp will last me a lifetime. Camp friends have a special kind of bond because you grew up together; you went through good times and bad times (puberty). You have made it though fights and dealt with long distances during the winter. Camp friends are friends for life.