Greetings from Hilltop. My goodness, that’s a wrap. What a session and what a summer it has been.
Last night’s Evening Fire was absolutely lovely. There were heartfelt, touching performances, but more than that, the room felt like a place where the best friendships were made and strengthened. The kids in the room, thanks to four weeks deeply ensconced in a culture that supports acceptance of others and places a high value on things like honesty, openness, and being there for each other, as opposed to superficial things, and without the unfortunate digital filter that follows us around virtually all the time, hugged each other, leaned on each other, and cried together, knowing just how valuable those friendships are.
I would argue these friendships aren’t just a nice-to-have. The single greatest predictor of long-term life satisfaction is relationships with other people. The more numerous and well-developed those relationships are, the better a person’s life is.
Many of the campers that were here this session will be friends with their camp friends well into adulthood. But beyond that, they’re learning on a very deep level what types of relationships they want in their life. The skills that they’ve developed here this session will serve them as they form new relationships, hopefully back here at camp in future years, but also out in the world in whatever they choose to do.
Now, we enter the transitional phase. Camp is an immersive experience, so the transition back to normal life often takes a little adjustment. We sometimes call this “campsickness,” the lesser-discussed cousin to homesickness. Some campers may be effusive with songs and stories right away, but others may need a little more time. They may spend inordinate amounts of time on devices talking with camp friends. The teenagers in particular may just need to sleep. But eventually, the transition stage will end, and regular life will settle in. The lessons of camp will remain.
For the staff, there’s a transition phase too, and it begins now. As I write this, some are facilitating our airport operation, and the rest are here at camp, cleaning up. Today and tomorrow, we’ll take care of those end-of-camp jobs, and celebrate the staff for a job well done with a banquet and their own special traditions. Then, on Thursday, they’ll head back to college or their next adventure.
There’s magic in these transitional times. I encourage you not to rush through them, but to savor them.
At some point, we hope you and your campers will start talking about 2027, and we hope that all of 2026’s campers return. Our registration for 2027 is already live, if you’d like to take care of it in the post-camp glow. Log in to your parent account, click “Registration Form,” and go from there. Of course, there’s no huge rush. Returning campers (and their siblings) are guaranteed enrollment as long as you sign up by October 31 – please note that this date is one month earlier than in years past. We hope this still gives returning families plenty of time to decide, while giving us more time to help new and last year’s waitlisted families get their campers enrolled before the holidays take over everyone’s attention. We’ll send out lots of reminders once the school year gets going, so keep an eye out for those.
Thank you, as always, for sharing your children with us this summer. It was truly a joy, and we know you’ll see the benefits of camp in the days, weeks, and months to come. We look forward to seeing many of you this winter for slideshows and centennial celebrations, and of course back on Orcas next summer.