Stage One: The Anticipation

So, you applied to work at a summer camp… Good for you! You have sent in your application, had an interview, and now you are strangely sweaty. You begin checking your email 500 times an hour and the answer to your prayers comes in four little words, 12 letters, “You got the job!”

As soon as you get hired to work at a camp the anticipation begins building. You start to “google” anything you can think of in attempts to prepare yourself for what is about to take place. You may realize that you have never even been to summer camp before. If you have been to summer camp, you might start reminiscing on all of the camp shenanigans of your youth and wonder if you will ever be respected as an adult after all of the levels of Dante’s Inferno you put your counselor through. The worry turns to excitement as you realize you have a reason to buy new camp clothes and you don’t have to worry about impressing anyone with your physical appearance at camp (let’s be real us solid four’s in the real world move up to at least a seven or eight in camp world).

If you have worked at camp before the anticipation probably started the day after you stopped being sad that camp was over. You keep looking at all of your things for camp and cycling between being overjoyed that you get to go back to work there and sad that it’s so far away. You find yourself scrolling through Pinterest at un-godly hours looking up cabin activities, crafts, or cabin themes for the summer. You have created a camp board and you plan camp even more than you plan the seven weddings you’re not having or your hypothetical cat’s birthday party. This is big, really big. You talk to your summer co-workers all the time about how excited you are about going back to camp. You even start talking to the new-hires you’ve never met on the regular basis. You are excited and you want the world to know!

Whether you’re new or this is your 10^th summer, you have packed and unpacked your bag seven or eight times by now and your family and real-life friends are really concerned, tired of you singing “weird” songs to them, and wish you would talk about something other than camp once in a while.

Stage Two: The Excitement

You are finally at camp! It smells kind of funny but you are so excited to be there that you only notice a little. If this is your first summer, you might be a little overwhelmed everyone is screaming, hugging, and jumping into each other’s arms. It all may seem a little “extra” at first, but don’t worry, you will be laughing along and fit in just fine soon! Don’t fret about the 50 names you just heard all in succession, you will learn them surprisingly quickly.

Training week is a blast! You can’t wait to find out if you are going to get a co-counselor and what he/she will be like, what cabin you are in, and how many campers you are going to have. You have come to the realization that the people you have met in the first week are pretty dang cool compared to everyone at home because camp has brought out the best parts of everyone’s personalities. You have been more silly in your adult life in the past week than you even knew possible and you are having the time of your life.

You and your brand-new co-counselor AKA new best friend have now moved into a cabin together, you have carefully cut 752 separate shapes out of construction paper, you have been to the store 3 times because you vastly underestimated the amount of glue sticks it would take to complete your far-too intricate design, and your cabin is the cutest thing either of you have ever laid eyes on. Tomorrow is the day you have both been waiting for, your campers will be there. This is when the excitement sets in. You are trying to go to bed early but your mind is going 1000 miles a minute. What will they be like? Will their parents be nice to you? Do you remember everything you learned in training? The morning comes and you see that first camper arrive and you realize that you were ready all along!

Stage Three: The Acceptance

At this point you are really into the swing of things. Your routine is set, your kids are your 14 closest friends on the planet right now, and you barely even notice the pile of sand in your bed that is inevitably there regardless of your efforts to get rid of it. You realize that somehow camp has made you into a super-human. When not at camp, spiders send you running and /or screaming, but here you can pick them up with your bare hands and take them safely outside and you didn’t even flinch when you had to jump in the dumpster on sloppy joe day to find a retainer. This is your life now and you are happy about it!

Stage Four: The Feels

Stop mentioning leaving camp. I can’t handle it. Everything is sentimental. There are actual tears. The memories and friends you have made will last a lifetime.

Stage Five: The Post Camp Blues

You go into darkness for a while before your real-life resumes. This feeling can pop up unexpectedly at any time. You miss all things camp and the memories are so bittersweet because all you want to do is go back!