I’m Kiaya, a culminati here at camp, which means this is my last year. A lot is happening today though, the Perseid meteor shower, Cabin Cleanup and Trust Circle!
We had a bit of a cold start, it was pretty chilly this morning and cloudy. But we got through breakfast and morning meeting before moving onto advisee, with my advisor Blake Boles, who we also have a tradition of throwing into the local creek towards the end of camp. For my advisee we get to sit in the downstairs of the new cabin Dogwood, which has a public common space downstairs and the actual cabin upstairs. Today after checking in we played Hotseat for the first time this session, where one person gets asked questions by everyone else for 3 minutes.
After advisee is the first workshop. Run by both staff and campers. Blake, my advisor, was running one too, along with other ones like “Watch Grass Grow” or “Zine Making with a Purpose”.
Then it is superheroes which are our daily tasks/chores and lunch right after. I like to eat out on the side porch of the lodge, it only has a few tables so it’s easier to have a discussion without surrounding noise being too loud.
After lunch we get some rest time called siesta where nothing is scheduled. I spent it resting in my tent today, it does get really hot in a tent during midday though, so I was pretty toasty. As for the next two workshop slots, I took a shower during one of them, but they had offerings like “Introduction to Crowparty”, “Ecstatic Dance”, and “Figure Drawing”. The dance workshop ran quite far past when it should have ended in the field.
Afterwards the bell rings and we start cabin cleanup, an event that happens once per session where you’re supposed to tidy your living space, but you can also decorate to a theme to try and win based on a rubric of cleanliness, theme, and bribes to the judges, which are the staffers. You don’t win anything expect bragging rights though. Tent village, which is the group of tenters, are evaluated together like a cabin. We hadn’t really planned much ahead, but after cleaning and putting up some fairy lights, we moved two soccer goals, which were really light, and faced them together so they covered a massive tent with added stuffed animals and a long furby caged inside. Just to try and do something, honestly. We also retroactively called it a petting zoo to try and give it an actual theme. As for the other cabins, a few did beach themes, and the older Elm cabin was acting as a petition against the new Dogwood cabin.
Right after it is dinner and then evening meeting on the stage. Me and Ethan, another culminati, got to share our late night workshops. Ethan doing a night hike and I was going to host a stargazing group for the meteor shower but it ended up canceled later as the clouds never cleared up. Quite unfortunate as it was supposed to be really good viewing this year with the new moon.
But, with evening meeting over we had a short break then trust circle, which after being lead into the lodge is a silent event where the people leading the event read out a statement and you can choose to identify with it by stepping forward. The questions tend to change each year and they can be fairly impactful for some people. The lodge managed to remain pretty quiet after the event, I even almost fell asleep but after getting the late night snack they served, I did go back to my tent and pass out.
Quite a bit went on today, but I am excited for campfire tomorrow!
– Kiaya, Camper