Welcome to Summer Camp

My little cousin is going on his first big camping excision this summer. For three weeks, they'll be backpacking, hiking, and doing all the awesome things that kids get to do at summer camp. Not only will my cousin be at summer camp for the first time, this is the first time that they'll be far from home for an extended period of time. 

I was around the same age when I went away from home for the first time. When I was eight, I went to overnight camp for a week. One of my good friends also went to this camp and we were able to hang out together (in fact we were in the same cabin). Having my friend with me eased my homesickness. 

I don't know if my little cousin will also have a friend or two going with them, but I can bet they'll have a fantastic time. I shared with them a few stories of my camping experience...and there were a few stories their mom asked I not share because she didn't want her kid to repeat my silliness.

So here are some of the things I remember learning while at summer camp: 

1) You need to send a letter home: this seems obvious, but eight year old me didn't fully understand stamps. I had stationary to write letters home, but I didn't have stamps. In fact, I thought the stickers keeping the stationary together were stamps (thinking that stamps were like old fashioned wax seals). Not that my letters had anything interesting in them. I sent one of these letters to one of my aunts who kept it on her fridge for years. For years I cringed seeing my sloppy handwriting with the words "Love you! Miss you! Having fun at camp!" when I would go and visit her. 

2) Wear bug spray! Lots and lots of bug spray! I came home from camp with dozens of mosquito bites - mostly on my face (yikes!). I was sure to tell my little cousin to have lots of bug spray.

3) Sleeping under the stars is amazing: We had one night were we slept under the stars instead of in a cabin. We still had mosquito netting hanging over our heads, but it didn't hamper our view of millions of stars. I remember thinking that it was one of the most amazing ways to fall asleep. 

4) Always have a buddy: The buddy system is a must for safety. There are a lot of ways things can go wrong when you don't have someone with you - even when you use the biffy (what we called the outhouse  bathrooms).

5) Thunderstorms in the woods are terrifying: I didn't tell my little cousin this story, but one night we had a huge thunderstorm. The cabin next to ours at one point all called out in distress for one of the counselors. Our cabin freaked out and we screamed our heads off. Thankfully another counselor came quickly to calm us down. It was so much louder than any thunderstorm I'd been in up to that point in my life. My cabin mostly sat huddled around a flashlight in the middle of the cabin until the counselor managed to coax us into our beds.

And finally....

6) Change your socks every day: This should be another obvious one, but not to eight year old me. For some reason, I decided to wear the same pair of socks for my entire week in the woods. I tried to tell my mom that of course I changed my socks, I just happened to be wearing the same ones I left in. She didn't buy it - especially when she opened my backpack and saw all the clean socks I hadn't worn. My little cousin's mom asked me not to tell that story as they would take it as a challenge and try to do the same thing...but for three weeks.

Summer camp is a wonderful experience. Unfortunately, not everyone is able to go. It can be expensive or bad timing for some families. I wish that everyone could have the opportunity to go to summer camp.

If you're thinking of writing stories about summer camp, you can use my stories to help you with your prompts.  

Until next week.

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