I got there a couple days early to chip off some hours from my work trade. There wasn’t tons for me to do, so I was mostly popping in and out of the kitchen to see if I could help in any way, and getting dragged around by Oona (one of the staff kids) which lasted a good few hours. The time went way too slow. 3 something pm rolled around and Phaedrus and Elijah came super early, that’s when it really started to hit me that I was at camp, and as the others started rolling in, I fully felt that camp feeling, the wonderful emotions came crashing at me, I saw all these old and new faces. I was scared and nervous and excited and so so happy, everyone came here and it all felt like it all went so fast this year, we circled up, we sang songs, learned about all the wonderful staff (most of them i was already pretty friendly with) some general camp boundaries, and just got to know fun things about each other. After that we split into our advisee groups (mine is probably the best). We talked about our trips and got really reeeeeaalllyyy good salad dressing. It was really dark for like the second half, and we had no lights except the light of our phones.
Advisee ended and we got the relax for a little, it felt like as soon as we sat down and got comfortable we were jolted right up again, I felt like I was home, all the songs I love to sing and the people I love to see, camp is really home. We got the hug number and everyone scattered around in little groups talking to each other, all the times I’ve gone I never saw people as connected like this on the first day, I didn’t really talk much, I didn’t feel like I needed to, I just sat there taking in it all, it was wonderful seeing all these people connect. I ended up walking outside to a group of eepy sleepers, we were planning on brushing teeth and sleeping in the field, but Kilam walked out, we barley talked but we became quick besties, and me, him, and Caitlin ended up talking and giggling far into the night (we were probably sooo annoying), we fell “asleep” at 3? Or so, drifting in and out of sleep until like six where we were filled with so much energy and couldn’t stay put anymore. We were so cold and tired but it has become one of my new favorite camp moments.
Eliza M., Camper
