Why?

Going to camp for the first time as a counselor is an incredibly surreal event. It feels unknown, exciting, scary and a little bit daunting. You meet new people at training, and you hear the excitement in their voices and maybe you see pictures of wild and wacky outfits they wore, and you hear stories of the good times, the hard times and the sleep deprived times. People who have 5, 10, 20 or even 30 years of experience. 

And amidst all of that you wonder “why do they keep coming back to camp?”. Why do they miss work and leave family and give a week of their lives to be sleep deprived and survive on romaine lettuce?

It might be on Monday when your campers see their beds for the first time, or at the birthday party when they see they have presents. It might be when they pass the swim test and run up to tell you after pool time.

It could be when they ask you to pray for them to help them sleep.

That’s when you see the bottom line of it all. All of those people come back year after year for one reason (well for 100 reasons): they come back for the kids. 

They come back for the kids because they have witnessed and realized that a week of camp can change a life.

You don’t see it all at once. But it’s in the moments.

It seems simple- that people come to camp for the kids. But until you have been there- until you’ve seen a campers face light up at the bounce houses at the birthday party or get a thrill from getting to have their own space in a room.

When you see a light bulb realization that maybe, just maybe, all of these adults do actually love them- that right there is when you experience camp.

That there is the moment of why people come back year after year.

That’s the moment of “why”

It isn’t a big moment; it isn’t every kid every year.

It’s all in one moment.

That’s all that matters. 

That’s why we come to camp.