Written by Christian (staff– advisor and project leader)
After two of us inexplicably getting almost no sleep, Vick (Kitchen Jr. Staff), Franz-Michael (Dish assistant, and I (advisor/project leader) departed for camp around 7am from Worcester. We made Franz-Michael drive as he got a full night. I got the luxury of leaving from my own house to camp, meaning I got to stuff far too much bedding, clothes, and equipment. I’m not really one to pack light. When I worked at the Oregon session I brought a suitcase full of pillows. The flight attendants were curious why I had an empty suitcase. Anyway, The drive went through all my favorite parts of Massachusetts and in roughly no time we got to camp.
Now, it might just have been because I was tired, but when I got up to the edge of the field after getting out of the car my head thought “This is going to take forever!” My legs felt like the weight of tree trunks as I walked up to the farmhouse to see a bunch of friends I hadn’t seen in a year. I made quick “hello”s but was pretty eager to try to fall asleep. I made the long journey back across the field to my favorite cabin, The Hick’s Hilton. To my delight, it had not been dibbs’d. I threw my too much of everything in there, made my bed of too many blankets, rested my stuffed gnome Kelkorinn on my too many pillows, tried to fall asleep, and couldn’t. It was fine.
It was a day of getting ready. I opened up my calendar to plan, I saw the 10 day schedule and thought “There is so much stuff going on!” This my 7th year, it’s probably a thing I should know at this point. But there is so much we pack into these sessions, it feels truly impossible that it be fit into 10 days.
Meetings started after lunch and although I’ve sat through them over 10 times now, they are essential for me. A lot of camp feels like a performance, not like I’m faking or acting, but like I’m an athlete performing; giving it my all every day to make the most incredible experience I can for everyone here. My take away from my day of meetings are:
-There are too many campers who are too different of people to really plan too much.
-There is so much here to experience and be a part of.
-Camp is made by the work of a lot of incredibly talented people, campers included.
With all of this joy of anticipated the next week, I started thinking about the kind of mindset I need to bring to this epic performance. With so much to do and experience, how can I fit it all into 10 days? The magic of camp is this: as I walk back to The Hick’s Hilton my lumbering legs start the journey across the long field and I’m forced to look up from my camp papers and see a giant moon over the side of the mountain.
I kept walking as I looked one of the brightest moons I had ever seen, and in what felt like no time I made it to the edge of the field.
-Christian