Zoe: Camp Myrtlewood, (Day 13)

Hello! My name is Zoe JDP, I Unschool in New York City, and this has been my second year of NBTSC.

Today is the last day of camp. It was quite a slow and emotional day. 

By the end of morning meeting, I was already crying. So many wonderful people and such a beautiful place I will leave behind for a whole year again. This is my second time at NBTSC, and recovering after camp ends is a long process of finding ways to recreate the magic of camp in your home life. 

I climbed the tall tall coastal redwood tree one last time. Yesterday, Jenna measured it, and concluded that the tree is approximately one hundred and twenty feet tall, and three hugs around the circumference of the bottom. 

Together, all the campers cleaned the entire site to make sure we left it in as nice of a condition as we found it in. 

Two staffers made a scavenger hunt, that involved putting blackberries on your face, licking banana slugs, and serenading someone. I was very tired, so i didn’t participate, but it was very fun to watch everyone running around checking things off their teams lists. I laid in the couch as it seemed to absorb me fully, and listened to Will piano playing. 

At evening meeting we sang a very chaotic rendition of stand by me. I used henna to draw the climbing tree on my arm so that i could prove to myself camp was real even after i left. The longer ago camp was, the less it felt like it actually happened, and could’ve been a fairyland. Keeping physical things from camp is one of the best way to ground myself in it’s reality. 

Anyway, at the end of the meeting, some of the staff came to the front of the outdoor stage and said that the culminators were under arrest, so Mel, Oxen, Maeve, and Sita were marched to the outdoor chapel where a court case was held. It involved the Gunch, a mythical creature that has been lurking around camp this session, Evan with a mop on his head to look like a judge’s wig, and Skye talking about poop. The culminators ended up being declared guilty, their punishment being to be thrown in the river. Luckily, they were given the option to sacrifice a staffer to take the punishment instead, and after some discussion, our wonderful Jack, one of the newest staff members, was carried by his limbs through the dark and tossed into the water. I feel bad for jack because it was pretty cold in the air, so getting out must have not been fun at all. 

Then we had closing ceremony, which is always so special. We gathered in in the field in a circle under the stars, and singing ”you are my family, you are healing me” we walked into the lodge, forming a human tunnel that everyone walked through, before sitting down around the edge. We applauded for all the staff with so much enthusiasm i had to plug my ears. Then came the culminator speeches, which made me cry. Seeing how much camp meant to each person, and thinking about how I didn’t know when I’d see any of those wonderful people next was so moving. I hope one day I will culminate too. There was a short break, where many of us lay on the floor together and sobbed and laughed and hugged. If there is anywhere we belong, it’s here, we agreed. In the last part of closing ceremony, we arranged ourselves in two horseshoe shaped rows, hugging each person we passed, singing “All I ask is you is forever to remember me as loving you”. After every person had hugged every person, closing ceremony was officially over, but the night surely wasn’t. Many people stayed in the lodge to hug, talk, and play music. I sat down by the long tables covered in camp directories (sort of like a yearbook), and got to work signing them, writing nice things in each one. I couldn’t do all of them sadly, but I did sit there for multiple hours talking with others and writing and drawing in everybody’s books. I rested on the couch while Merlin plucked the guitar next to me. The chattering in the background made me feel so at home. At around 3 am, one of the people cooked up eleven boxes of boxed mac ‘n’ cheese, and gave it out to everybody. There we were, sitting on the counter, floors, couches, trying to savor every last hour of Not Back to School Camp, like it was the best mac ‘n’ cheese we had ever had. I left the lodge to sleep in my bed at four, but I know that many people did not sleep at all. For instance, Eddie stayed up and washed dishes for three more hours. The kitchen seems like one of the best places at camp. All the awesome people are in there, and there is always music playing, it seems like an infinite party. Not to mention all the wonderful smells and food always that come out of that place. 

About the last day of camp, Grace said: “its the part that’s exciting because it’s watching people fly away, and it’s also the sad part because it’s the flying away”, and with that, I conclude this blog.

Zoe JdP, camper