So, It’s Been A While…

Where has the time gone?

It’s almost September and camp is drawing to a close for me. The kids left over a week ago and now there’s just a handful of staff remaining here working for the next few weeks. But I’ve only got 4 days left in my favourite place in the world because, although the Fall season doesn’t end until midway through the month, ‘real’ life is calling me and I have to go.

: The best staff ever

It’s been an amazing summer, possibly one of my favourites yet, which is really saying something, 6 years down the line. So saying goodbye at the end of this week is something I’ve been majorly struggling with – I really don’t want leave!

Warning: I’m about to get really soppy.

Camp to me is it. It’s the thing I want to do, all of the time, forever. And I hope, if you’ve just spent your first summer at camp, that you get it now too. It’s infectious. It’s addictive. It gets into your mind and into your heart, and you have no control over the fact that now, and forever more, you’re a ‘camp’ person. And if you’re a camp person, you’ll know exactly what I mean.

This is the only place I’ve ever been where, while I’m here, I never feel like I want to be anywhere else. And that’s a rarity for me. Wherever I am, I always have places I want to go and things I want to see and, while I’m sure that’s always going to be true, when I’m at camp, all that dreaming about exciting new lands and experiences sort of just fades away and I only want to be here. I want to be here and soak it all up. To take in every tiny little piece of beauty and fun and magic it has to offer. To learn everything I can learn and to just be in the present with my friends, looking up at the sky, driving around in the truck doing jobs, or playing a ridiculous game of knockout on the basketball court as the sun goes down. When I’m here, in this incredible camp bubble, nothing else really exists but this life and these people. There’s no desire for anything more or anything different. I am content here. It’s something I don’t really get anywhere else. It’s a feeling I want to hold on to.

So while it’s goodbye for now, I know it’s definitely not goodbye forever.

P.S. Don’t worry, that’s not all I’m going to say about this summer at camp. I’ll be posting heaps more about my summer and about how you can have one just as fantastic in 2017 very soon! In the meantime, I’d love to hear about all of your summers – get in touch if you’d like to share some camp stories or take part in the ‘counselor of the week‘ series.