Every summer for five years growing up, I spent a month of my summer at an all girls camp in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Red Pine Camp for Girls helped me to create myself in a lot of ways, by exposing me to ideas, people and activities I may not have experienced otherwise. By spending the summer on your own, you learn independence, sisterhood, a lack of dependence on technology and a love of the outdoors, Camp is and has been a huge part of my life and influenced me to grow into the strong, passionate, adventurous person I am today.
Living for four weeks without your parents when you're 11 teaches independence. You learn the consequences of not being responsible for yourself. You are in charge of making sure you get enough sleep. Although there is a set bedtime for campers of certain ages, you still have the choice of what you do at "flashlight time," which is the time period after lights out where you are allowed to stay up quietly in your bunk with your flashlight for light, hence the term flashlight time. You can choose to stay up or sleep. There is also an hour-long break in the day called rest hour, which requires all campers to return to their bunk for an hour of silent activities, whether you choose to sleep, write letters, read, etc. Being 10 years old my first summer, it was a huge change for me to get to decide what I do with my free time because it required time management. I had to figure out what I would do during the day to make sure I accomplished everything I needed to. Campers are also responsible for keeping their clothes, bodies and belongings clean. This was a very new idea to me; my parents always did my laundry and told me when to shower, and organized and kept most of my belongings in good shape. If I had a problem they fixed it. Camp taught me if I have a problem that I have to fix it because it's not anyone else's responsibility to fix my mistakes.
The best part about camp is living in a cabin with 10 of your best friends. It's like a sleepover every day, and you really get to know each other. You have such a big support system around you at all times, from the girls in your cabin, but also other campers and the counselors and staff. Whether you can't sleep, you don't feel good or you need help or advice, there always is someone who is there for you and who understands. Camp also truly allows you to be yourself. There are girls from all over the state, the country and the world; everyone has a different race, religion, lifestyle, culture, interests and style that you don't feel like there is a mold you need to fit into to fit in. Everyone is different and everyone is so accepting that you never feel like you need to be someone you're not. As a cabin, you constantly work together for camp-wide after-dinner games and activities and Sunday events like "Harry Potter" Day, the Olympics, Christmas in July, etc. You learn to identify people's strengths and focus on the best parts of the people in your cabin in order to help the cabin win. You learn to problem solve in big groups, to listen to other people's perspective and ideas and the true meaning of friendship. Your cabin supports you when you pass a level in an activity or get to the highest level of an activity and get recognized. They encourage you to try new activities and take risks. You learn to appreciate the traditions of sisterhood at camp because you understand how strong the friendships are. By forming such strong bonds, it helps you to support the people around you rather than competing to be better than them. Everyone recognizes each other's strengths and supports them in their endeavors. The girls in your cabin truly have your best interest in mind. I haven't been back to camp for four years now, and I still see my camp friends who all continued going even when I stopped, a couple times a year.
The reason camp is camp is because there is no technology allowed for campers. This means no iPods, phones or computers while you're there. I think this really teaches you to live in the moment and experience things instead of just taking a picture of it. It teaches you to be engaged when someone is talking to you. You learn to do things because you want to do it instead of just so you can take a picture of it. There are no distractions so it allows you to rediscover your creative powers and engage the real world . This is an ideal that continues at home as well as in camp; you start to see how much there is to do without technology and that it can be fun! This is such a great quality to instill in children because they carry it with them for their entire lives. It also allows campers to experience communication in a new (old) way — writing letters! In high school when we wrote letters to ourselves, I was so surprised how many kids did not know where a stamp goes or how to address or even write a proper letter!
The most influential part of camp was the way they instilled the importance of nature in my life, Now that wasn’t something that was necessarily taught but rather just kind of understood. You woke up every morning and the air was brisk, and it always smelled like it just rained the birds were chirping there was dew on the grass and the sun was shining over the lake. It’s hard to ignore the beauty of the world around you when you experience it every day with no distractions. You learn to appreciate being on the open water whether you’re sailing, windsurfing, water skiing or fishing, there is something serene about being alone on the water. You find peace in going to bed to the sound of loons and the waves crashing on the beach, and without any light pollution there’s a full sky of stars every night. Camp teaches you to look around, to see bugs, plants, dirt, rocks, sunrises, sunsets, pine trees and storms. Something about being surrounded by nature brings a person a sense of understanding that they belong in the world. It instilled a desire in me to wander off the trail and explore the earth around me. During camp, we went to sub-camp, which was camping across the lake in a tent rather than in a cabin. We have a fire, make s’mores, sing songs and tell stories, and make our own breakfast over the fire. I learned to love waking up in a tent regardless of the bugs and the hard ground, too fall in love with the sounds of a crackling fire, and the smell of pine trees. To this day whenever I smell the pine trees I smile and think back on my time at Red Pine.
Camp helped shaped me into the person I am today, it introduced me to things I became passionate about, taught me to care for others, and myself and to appreciate the beauty around me. I am forever grateful for Red Pine and the memories, laughter and friendship created there, LSL
