This morning I woke up bright and early (and quite cold) in my tent. While campers and staff slept in and enjoyed their first morning all together at camp over breakfast, meetings, and advisee groups, I dug an energy drink out of the snack bag in Orion’s car and drove the two hours to Eugene. I called my dad on the road— leaving the cozy connectedness of camp for errands in the outside world can be a jarring and disconcerting feeling, and having someone to talk to helps ease the transition.
I arrived at a coffee shop in Eugene around 10:15, to find my dear friend and fellow staffer J sitting on the curb, awaiting my arrival. I picked them up and they bought me a chocolate macadamia scone as a token of their gratitude. On the drive back to camp, we discussed politics, queer identity, camp culture, and family (both given and chosen). A lot goes on behind the scenes during camp, including errands like this. While it can be taxing on the body to drive for long hours and sad to miss out on camp activities, I am also always so grateful for these long, uninterrupted conversations with my fellow staffers and the few lucky campers who arrive late or assist with laundry day.
We returned to Myrtlewood near the end of advisee group time, had a rest and completed a few necessary first day tasks that didn’t get done prior to camper arrival. In the afternoon, there were icebreaker games in the field, then I went to my kitchen shift to help prep, cook, and serve dinner and post-dinner snack. I chopped mountains of cucumbers and green beans, made a ridiculous amount of ranch dressing (which we consumed almost entirely at the next meal), rinsed and chopped lettuce for the salad bar, put away clean dishes, served rice, vegetables, and tofu, supervised the meal cleanup superheroes (the BEST team, thanks for making my life so much easier!), monitored the apple crisp, sorted out a dozen minor crises, gave hugs and asked for help, laughed with so many people, and finally ate my own dinner, right before evening meeting, which the other junior staffers led (and absolutely slayed). After all that, it was time for the staff talent show, which I watched and cheered on from the audience of campers.
After eating some apple crisp with fresh made whipped cream (and a single redvine… shhh), and a few more minutes of cleaning the kitchen, I collapsed into bed. I went to sleep quickly; exhausted, overwhelmingly grateful, and incredibly excited to do it all over again tomorrow.
Beck West, Lead Jr. Staff