Heyhey! My name is Elijah, I am a 21 year old culminating camper. This is my 4th year and 7th session coming to Not Back To School Camp.
I woke up in Fridas next to Jasper and Leo! I missed wake up call, but the morning chatter around me helped me wake myself up peacefully. Its our first morning of camp and I’m eager to experience the day.
Breakfast was exponentially joyful, I love chili oil so much!!! Eggs, potatoes, and cereal treated me so well :>
The culminators this year are Aaliyah, Leon, and myself. This means it’s our last year as a camper, and that we interact with camp in different ways compared to previous years. One of the first official things culminators facilitate at camp is a new camper orientation! In this meeting, the culminators explain how camp works and we elaborate a lot on the camp culture, slang, etc. It went fantastic, all the new campers make my heart feel so full of love.
Treating each other excellently is a panel we have at the start of camp about consent, conflict, and how to navigate it. Every year it’s a little different since they’re always trying to find ways to improve the panel. It was facilitated very well this year, and even though it’s my 7th session of camp, I found myself learning a lot. Thank you Christian and Brenna!
On the first full day of camp, there’s a decent amount of mandatory events to help campers understand the space and better acclimate to it. With that being said, there are also non mandatory silly connection activities on the same day to help set the tone for the session. One of them is called ‘Speed dating’ and it’s super cute. Everyone has a partner, then the staff ask a question out loud, which you then take turns asking your partner and being asked by your partner. Once the time is up, you find a new partner and do it all over again with a new question. I mention this, because Larkin and Brenna have both used a question that is my signature question. This is it, “If someone were to summon you via cauldron, what three ingredients would they have to add in order to summon you?”. Its one of my favourites, try it sometime. 🙂 during this time I was on the Jungle Jill (a structure that’s wooden and meant to be climbed) which has a perfect view over the field where games were happening.
Later in the evening, they have a community meeting followed by an evening event. Todays event was the staffer talent show!!! It gives staff a proper opportunity to introduce themselves as well as their unique talents. I was late to the event because I was getting my sleeping bag prepared and moved out to the communal sleeping area called Fridas. I am of course excited for all the talents, but I found myself really looking forward to Christian’s performance. Overall the experience was so much fun and a really nice way to feel closer to the staff here.
My final acts of the night were delightful. I mainly spent my time with Ben, we had an extremely cathartic conversation and it was so awesome finally being able to sit down with him to talk about our lives in addition to camp experiences. Thank you Ben! As the lodges were getting close to being closed, Sully went ahead and had an impromptu advisee group in the main lodge. We said our name, and what sock is the best length for just above the knee shorts. It was super mega silly and we also played a few games, just overall a great way to close my night. Thank you Sully and advisee!
I went to bed very late that night after yammering with some peers. I’m so thankful to be in this space and to call it my home of sorts. I don’t know exactly when I’ll be back in this place, but I am going to enjoy this session like there’s no tomorrow.
I hope you have a good night wherever you are. Sleep sweetly, have good dreams or good thoughts or dont have any at all, friend!
-Elijah Bleu, culminating camper
