'The Camp Song'

Camp has changed me for the better. It has been a part of my summer plans every year since Kindergarten. It isnt your normal day camp. No I was staying overnight starting with the first full week after Kindergarten.

That one week, I didn't know it at the time, but it changed my life. I spent 10 summers going at least a week each summer to Camp Asbury, church camp, then skipped 3 summers due to conflicts with the other camp, then got to come back as an adult volunteer this year. The friends I've made there stick with me to this day. The fact that I hadnt seen them for a while didnt interupt our friendship. We stayed in touch with three years of not seeing some of them, Text messages were the main way to stay in touch and I am glad we were able to.

"Something bound between us without us knowing why. From that moment on Nothing could undo the feeling of belonging that would always be true"

I credit my confidence, my character, many of my friendships to camp. Trying to explain everything that makes camp so dear to me is so hard to do. From late night cabin chats which then end up being a 3 person sleep talking conversation to inside jokes that still are going strong 4 years later. Its the life lessons I learned and the experiences Ive had.

Camp Seven Hills is a place I have called home for the past 11 years with this being summer #12. My first summer, I did a mini-week session. By the end of it, I did not want to leave. The next 6 years I spent a week or two each summer. My eighth summer, or as I like to call it "My CIT Year", I spent 4 weeks. Only going home for 1 weekend yet I never once felt homesick. That summer changed me. It showed me that being myself was the only way to be and that the people that matter wont judge. To the person that year who told me I would never be hired to be on staff, I want to say I have been on staff for what is now 4 summers.

I have worked as Camp Aide, Junior Counselor, Unit Counselor and now as a Ropes Counselor. During the spring and fall, I work as a ropes course facilitator. I found out about this song when one of the staff from my CIT year posted it on Facebook. That summer, my first on staff, we started singing it as part of our closing campfire.

"What is it exactly. How can I describe. All that I discovered by that Fireside"

Our staff makes a circle around the campfire, in places 2 or 3 deep, looking out at the wider circle of campers. Looking out and weeing my current and previous campers makes me smile and hoping that I made a difference in their life like my counselors did in mine. The magic of campfires and all I have learned around them can not be described.

Camp will be forever and always my home away from home.