Well-wishes for JT

So, this summer, one of my community theatre friends, a man named JT, was in a motorcycle accident. I heard about the incident while at camp, and this is a little something I wrote in my spare time to assess what I was thinking.

*****

I turn my dice bag over in my hands. It relaxes me – the familiar clack of colliding dice, the soft feel of the fabric of the bag. Out of place as the sound is amongst the chatter of rock games here at camp (dice rolling seems not to fit in with Bob the Weasel and Doctor & Germ) it is a comfort to hear a sound I’ve come to love here in this place I’ve come to love.

The news has struck me completely. It overwhelms me and consumes my thoughts until nothing else is left. I cried in worship that night, harder than I ever had previously. My prayers and thoughts were all concerning the accident, and I just couldn't keep a counselor-face on anymore. I broke down. I kept hearing others telling me that everything would be all right, not to cry, to smile, but that just was not what I wanted to hear in the slightest. I wanted real news, real advice, real support. And, unknowingly to those who gave it, that is what I ended up receiving. The kind words, the prayers, the hugs I received in the next few days, were exactly what I needed. And, even more so, was the card. I found it on my bed (I knew that I was getting it, the sender told me so) and opened it gently.

The striking thing about the card was the coincidence of the words that were written. The sender had told me to remember to breathe, and given me a tidbit of biblical comfort within - "Gracious God, calm my heart." Breathe, the word being like a breath in itself, is one of my meditation words - I write it, I recite it, I sing it, I live it. And the biblical tidbit was the exact one that I had randomly received at worship circle with Krysta that night. The coincidence was too great for me to believe it was pure coincidence. Even the sender of the card herself hadn't realized just how she had done it. The card was exactly what I needed to keep moving, to keep on going, to know everything was in good hands.

*****

Everything is fine now, and JT is well on the road to recovery, but I wanted to share this piece of writing with all of you.

My home away from home - Barbara C. Harris Camp (pt. 2)

The Camp (this summer)

This summer, camp was wonderful. I left home on June 11th and arrived that day at camp, there to stay until August 6th.The first two weeks were Staff Training, where we learned all about the way that camp was to work, what our jobs and responsibilities were, and were given all the important tools we would need to succeed this summer. We also learned a lot about one another, and started to get to know each other on a personal level. I think that my favorite three events of staff training were our two camp-outs and our hike.

On our first camp-out, we were all still getting to know each other. We all picked partners to sleep in tents with, and we set them all up on the Upper Field. The weather was wonderful, the company was great, and it was an excellent bonding experience for us all. I shared a tent with one of my best friends that summer, and through the power of play and laughter, started on the road to making the close friendships that I did this summer. From sharing secrets to shaking tents, from running barefoot around the grassy, dewy carpet of the field to sitting and relaxing with one another, the first camp-out was an experience I'll never forget.

The second camp-out was smaller. We all broke up by our Small Groups and each small group camped out somewhere different. My small group camped out with another, at the site past Closing Campfire. We set up our tents in the big clearing at the end of the path, and set up fires in the fire circles at Closing. We all had some free time to hang out together and socialize, and that camp-out was such a good experience to foster the relationships I already had with the other staff members. They were very quickly becoming good friends of mine, and that night in particular I had such deep and meaningful conversations with people that I know that they will be my good friends for a very long time.

The staff hike was also an incredible experience, but for very different reasons. The staff hike becomes a sort of bonding experience, and it was very important for me to do it. I did the same hike with my group when I was a CIT, and again when I was a Junior Counselor. The staff last summer also went on the hike together, but I unfortunately had my freshman orientation for college when they had the hike, and had to miss out. This year, I was determined to make the hike, and to develop the sense of camaraderie that goes along with the excitement, hard work, and determination of the hike each and every year. We all work together to make it to the summit, and when we finally do, that sense of completion brings us so much closer together as a staff and as a family. The view at the top of that summit was beautiful, and we all got to share that together.

Barbara C. Harris Camp Staff 2011!

The rest of the summer flew by. Week one, I had Explorers for an age group. Our small group, Explorer A, was made up of myself, my co-counselor, Aiden, and six phenomenal campers (two girls, three boys). Arden, Kati, Marvin, Gabriel, Matt, and Ben were probably the best group of kids I could have asked for to start the summer with. Absolutely none of them misbehaved, and they got along with each other so well that by the end of the week, we were just having fun. We grew so close together that week, and became like our own little family. I miss every one of those kids, as well as my co-counselor and very good friend, Aiden. I could not have asked for a better week to start off with.

Week two was a bit more difficult, but was a good week all the same. Despite my late nights with stomach-achy campers, my girl-crazed Explorer boys, and my Explorer girls' miniscule hissy fits, I had a fun week. My co-counselor was Al, and for the week we also had six campers (three girls, three boys). Meghan, Grace, Rachael, Michael, Eli, and Caleb were a complete riot. I already knew Meghan and Michael from things previous (Meghan is the younger sister of two of my camp friends, and Michael's mom is the priest at my church). Eli and Caleb, two troublesome twins, had managed to become the stuff of Trouble Camper Lore by the time I had them, yet had calmed down enough that I grew to love them both by the end of the week. Grace and Rachael both were new campers to me, but were great additions to our group.

Week three, I was assigned to work with Day Camp. There were several other counselors doing so with me - Jess R, Becca, Frankie, Gracie, Andy, Kevin, Peter, and the day camp director, Karen. I may be missing people, but it was an enormous week! There were SO many kids, they needed us all! I think the grand total got to be 27 day campers. There are most certainly very memorable campers that week - Jack, Madelyn, Ty, Micah, Caroline, and Matthew, just to name a few. Juliette, an adorable toddler and daughter of one of the chaplains from that week, was the favorite of many of us, I think. I was incredibly impressed by the fact that she could form complete grammatically correct sentences at such an early age.

Week four, I had my first of three all-girls groups. Jess M was my co-counselor, and we had a small group of five Adventure age girls - Calista, Ava, Rossely, Cristal, and Alondra. This week of camp, a group of students from the Esperanza Academy came to attend camp. Rossely, Cristal, and Alondra were all part of that group, and so already knew each other previously. Calista and Ava also previously knew each other. They were best friends, and had been attending camp together for years. Ava's grandmother was one of the chaplains that week, and brought Calista along as she did each year. Due to the fact that so many of them already knew so many of the others, incorporating the two groups of girls together was pretty simple. The week was mostly relaxing, and plenty of fun.

Week five was the week that I had been waiting for the entire summer. Last summer, week five, I had gotten an all-girl's Challenge group that was my favorite of the summer. This year, miraculously, and to my great pleasure, four of those five girls were back, and they were all mine again. They had brought along a friend of theirs from their town, so again, I had an all-girls Challenge group of five girls. My co-counselor was a very close friend of mine Allie, and there is nobody else I would have rather had this group of girls with. I am so glad to have been able to share the experience with her, and knew from the beginning of the week that we were in for a wonderful one. Adriana, Abby O, Abi W, Katherine, and Molly were our girls for the week, and though we started out tough on them to show them we meant business, by the end of the week, the seven of us were as much friends as we were anything else. I could go on forever about the greatness of that week, but there is still another week to talk about, and this post has gone on for long enough already.

Week six I had another all-girls Challenge group, this time with a full eight girls in it. My co-counselor was Kim, a girl I've known since our CIT year. Our girls were Sé, Betsy, Lily, Sarah, Naomi, Emily, Kira, and Kaylie. This was my first and only full-size overnight group all summer. They were wonderful girls, even if they were rowdy, ridiculous, and crazy. Each and every one of them made me smile and laugh, and they were always up to something humorous.

In all, my summer was absolutely wonderful, and I could talk forever about it, but I think this summary is as much as I will talk about it for now. I can only imagine that there are very few people who have read this whole entry (shout out if you did!) and so I will stop rambling now and continue about my business. Barbara C. Harris Camp, thank you so much for all that you have done for me, and I hope to see you again next June.

My home away from home - Barbara C. Harris Camp (pt 1)

The Camp (past summers)

This summer, I was a counselor at the Barbara C. Harris Camp in Greenfield, New Hampshire. BCH is an Episcopalian Church Camp run by the Diocese of Massachusetts, and has been my summer home for the past seven summers in a row. I've gone to Episcopalian Church Camp for the past twelve summers in a row. My first five were at Bement Camp, a now-closed camp that my mom and uncles used to work at as counselors when they were about my age. I loved Bement dearly, and was sad to leave, but I am so glad that I moved on to such a wonderful place as BCH.

The way that age groups work at BCH are such:
Explorer - going into grades 4 & 5
Adventure- going into grades 6 & 7
Challenge - going into grades 8 & 9
Base - going into grades 10 & 11
Since it's a Church Camp, we had worship services twice a day (morning and evening) and Bible Study every day. We said grace before each meal, and sang fun Christian songs (as well as other crazy camp songs).

I spent three summers at BCH as a camper. My very first year, I was about to go into the eighth grade. I was in a small group called Challenge C, with counselors Tracey and Ara. I remember my week, and all the fun that I had. That summer, though, I didn't talk during Bible Study, and I didn't sing or dance in worship. It took me until my next summer, in Art Camp, to really start to open up. That next summer was my most memorable, as a camper. I had two international counselors, Petr and Iryna. I knew a few of the other campers already. I knew the songs from the previous year, started realizing that it was okay to be foolish and to dance around, and that being myself was what camp was all about. I made friends that year that I still have to this day, both in my fellow campers and in the director of the program, Erin Ferrell. My third year, in Base Camp, I feel was only a springboard into the world of becoming a part of what made BCH so great - its staff. Base Camp was a week that I only slightly remember, most likely due to the fact that no great transformation happened that year. I know that I had fun, but by the end of that summer I knew I was ready to take the next step in the process.

The summer that I was going into 11th grade, I spent three weeks of my summer doing the Counselor In Training program at BCH. For the price of one regular week of camp, my fellow CITs and I (we called ourselves the Frugaloots...that was our insanely original team name, and it stuck) spent our days learning what it meant to be on staff. We spent our first week basically as campers, getting to know each other and getting to know all the rules and regulations we would be expected to enforce. Our second week was spent doing more intensive training, more specific training. Our third week was spent shadowing groups, watching the counselors that we were working with put everything we were learning into action. It wasn't just some job to pass the time, it wasn't just something to do for the money. It was going to be some truly hard work on our part, but it would be some of the most rewarding work that we would ever do. I put my all into learning everything that I could, and into getting to know all of the other Frugaloots as well as I could. We were all psyched for the next summer, being Junior Counselors, and almost all of us returned.

The Junior Counselor program was six weeks long. We had gotten caught right in the middle of a program reformation, so ours was a very different experience from those who were JCs the previous year. Our first few weeks were spent just like our first two weeks as CITs. We went over everything again, and learned more about each other. Though there were a few Frugaloots missing from the Junior Counselor group we now had, there were a few additions, as well. One was a CIT the summer before we were, and had taken a summer off before returning. One was a Junior Counselor the summer previous, and was re-doing the program because of her age. Two were CITs in the second 3-week session of the previous summer. By the end of our Junior Counselor summer, almost all of us were put with a group as a full-fledged counselor.

Of all the Junior Counselors I worked with, there are four of us (other than myself) who were still working at the camp this summer. One has become a program staff member, one has become a team leader, and the other two, like me, have remained counselors. I am so grateful for them, and for the summers that I have spent with them. I care about each and every one of them in a way different than I do for anyone else, because we all spent all those weeks together in the past. In total, I think I have spent between 22 and 25 weeks total over the past four summers working with these fabulous people. The time truly adds up.

Last summer, my first year as a counselor, was absolutely amazing. I met so many new and wonderful people (all the fabulous and amazing staff), and really got the chance to make a difference in all those campers' lives. I went at it being myself completely, and I know that that has been my strength ever since then. I love being able to be the one to show them all that it is okay to be crazy, ridiculous, and a bit eccentric, that being you is all that matters at camp and you will be loved no matter what. I love making those connections with the kids, knowing that they'll go home and remember you and the things you did with them, and the things that you taught them. Some of the things that made me know that my time at camp was well spent were the notes and letters I received from them. One camper wrote letters to me during the school year. One simply wrote a note during an activity, and in it told me that I was one of his favorite counselors in his many years at the camp. The simple act of writing those notes made me realize just what an impact I had. I vowed to go back to camp for another summer. Though I may be home, for now, my mind and heart are at camp.

The Purpose of This Blog

So...basically, this is a blog. Obviously. We're on blogger.com here.

The blog knows that it's a blog. It also knows that it knows it's a blog. It's a metablog.

I don't know just yet what this blog will be used for, and I can't promise it will be entertaining (for anyone but me, anyway). I just want to see what happens, see where this goes. Perhaps this will become a good way for my friends to stay up to date on what's going on with me, perhaps I'll just use this as an outlet for my lame humor and general nerdiness. We shall see.

And yes. I purposefully titled my blog just so that the acronym would be ACRONYM.
A prime example of my lame humor right there. :)