Greetings from Rosario Strait. I’m on the ferry, on the way back to Orcas from a long but successful day getting our campers home. I’m looking out at a pink horizon past the San Juan Islands. Mount Baker is over my right shoulder.
At the end of the final day of First Session, I’m having a moment that I hope all of our campers and staff are having. We’re stepping out of camp and back into the real world (for our campers, until next summer, for staff, for a few days), but camp is still with us. The experience of the friendship, fun, adventure, and togetherness that we were all just a part of, which seemed sometimes as though it would never end, suddenly has, but for me anyway, that stepping back into the real world makes both the experience of camp and the experience of our regular lives better. The opportunity to step, for a few weeks, into an immersive and totally different experience makes our normal lives shine more, and makes us look forward to that next chance to step into something different.
Last night, we had a beautiful Evening Fire to end the session. Even after 19 summers, a final Evening Fire never gets old. They’re always a bit different, but there’s always magic to be found. I’ll let you ask your campers what the funny bit of Pacific Northwest magic loot we had last night was, alongside the wonderful sea shanties, classic and original songs, and poetry.
Now, I imagine, your campers are tired and happy. Campers react in all sorts of ways to re-entry. Some are immediate with the songs and stories. Some want to spend all their time on devices talking to camp friends. Some just want to sleep. If your camper isn’t reacting in the perfect way for the adults in their lives, give it a couple of days. Usually they’ll give you a little more of what we hope for as parents, sometimes you’ve just got wait for them to come around to it. Hopefully, you’ll notice them perhaps seeming a touch taller (though if you actually got out the tape measure, you’d see it was something other than additional inches), more confident, more independent, maybe even offering to clear the table after dinner, out of habit if nothing else.
Thank you for sharing them with us this past month. They’ve been a joy. Up on Orcas, we’re in for a bit of rest and preparation, and then we’ll do it all again starting on Saturday.