Greetings from Hilltop. It is an absolutely beautiful Sunday on Orcas Island. It’s kind of wild we’ve established such a community in here. We’re in such a groove that it almost feels like we’ve always been here and we always will. Of course, that’s obviously not true. Today is our last Sunday of First Session, the kickoff of our last week. And the last week, very often, is the best one.
It’s the best because two things happen at once. First, we get to take advantage of all the groundwork we’ve built over the last three weeks: the relationships formed, the bumps in the road overcome, and the comfort level established. Second, as people notice that our time together is short, they value it a little more highly. When everyone feels that way all at once, it’s one of the best feelings a community can have. We’ve gotten pretty good over the years at nudging these feelings along. There’s a flow to every session at Four Winds. Right now, we’re at the very end of senior trips. They return to camp tomorrow. When the seniors return, the energy boost will be remarkable. It’s been great to have this week with just the juniors and intermediates. The camp feels a little bit smaller. Intermediates get a chance to be the leaders of camp, and we have wonderful activities like Burger Bar that we only do when the seniors are gone. But, when the seniors return, camp will feel whole again. Their energy upon seeing each other, after being split up into their various trip groups, will be infectious, and the whole camp will notice, juniors right on up through staff.
Then we’ll start our final four evening activities starting on Tuesday evening. We end every session at camp with the same four evening activities: Talent/No Talent, the camp talent show; Pins & Slides, where we award pins for efforts in the activity areas and have a slideshow of the summer session; the CT dance, where we’ll let a lot of energy out and dance the night away; and our final evening fire at the end of packing day, the last full day of camp. All the while, campers will be participating in the less formal end-of-session rituals: writing notes in each other’s books that they’ll take home, talking about how they’ll stay in touch after camp is over, having jewelry ceremonies, celebrating people’s contributions to camp and our appreciation for each other.
People often lean on the term “magic” when they’re talking about camp feels. Many of you know that I’m a little bit conflicted about the use of this term. On the one hand, I understand it because there are feelings you can have at camp that rarely, if ever, occur in the outside world. Yet I resist the term because there’s nothing supernatural about what’s going on here. It’s all very real and very human. It has to do with living together in community, growing together, holding to a set of values, belonging, and sharing experience. It’s awfully hard to recreate in the outside world, but it’s not, in the literal sense, impossible.
Often, when I give my little talk at the final evening fire, I encourage campers to find ways to capture a bit of that magic outside of camp. While this place is special, the things we do here can be done in the outside world. I think it’s a shame if campers only get that feeling in the four weeks that they’re here and none of it in the other 48 weeks of the year. Perhaps I’ll take a moment to encourage all you parents out there to do the same for yourselves, for your kids, for your families. Take those opportunities to unplug and be together, dedicating time to that without screens, whether that’s a regular dinner, a vacation, or whatever works for your family. Let kids stretch their legs, experience a little of the freedom and independence that most of us parent-age people enjoyed when we were their age, and do your best to set aside modern-day anxieties so kids can play.
Of course, it’s up to you what you decide to do in those other 48 weeks. We’re so grateful to have the remaining one with them up here on Orcas Island. As I said at the beginning, the last week of camp is often the best one. Most of the campers and staff, I think, don’t quite see it coming yet, but over the next couple of days they will. I absolutely can’t wait to see it unfold. Thank you, as always, for sharing your children with us. Be sure to follow our daily stories on Instagram. Feel free to reach out to us in the office if you have any questions, and I’ll post here again on departure day, when some of the campers will already be back with you, and others will be on their way home.