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I spent several summers lazing at home, watching movies with my family, and swinging with abandon at the playground with my friends.
Eventually, my mother suggested sending me to an overnight camp. I had never been away from my parents for more than a night, and the camp, about a four-hour ride from home, seemed impossibly far away. Even going for just one session meant a very long month away from home, which seemed like an eternity to me at age 11.
Yet, I was flattered that my parents considered me old enough and mature enough to have lived away from them for so long. If they thought I was up for the challenge, I was determined to prove them right.
Now I’m a mom of four, and my kids don’t have the same experience, even though I loved it.
I was hesitant about going to sleepaway camp
As I counted the days until my departure, I started to worry. I am shy by nature and worried about making friends. I worried about how I would sleep in a room full of girls and whether I would like the food.
I thought a bad counselor could ruin my summer and hoped for someone more like a cool older sister to hang out with rather than a teacher hell-bent on keeping campers in line. Desperate to fit in, I hoped I had packed the right kinds of clothes and a swimsuit. Although I wouldn’t have admitted it then, I was worried about missing my family and being homesick.
I loved every minute
After an uncertain first few days, I settled into overnight camp. I swam with friends, played volleyball with my counselor, and got a lead role in the end-of-camp show. We ran feral through the mountains and woods, playing capture the flag and enjoying being surrounded by the majesty of tall trees and chirping birds – a far cry from the endless concrete and loud sounds of the city where most of us lived.
Nights were magical. After the sun went down, we huddled around a campfire, singing camp songs and telling ghost stories that got progressively scarier until one of the girls asked us to stop. We made s’mores and roasted hot dogs under the stars, whose sparkle was overpowered by streetlamps at home. These nights sparked a fascination with the sky and space that lingers today. After we returned to our beds, my bunkmates and I stayed up talking and laughing. Our counselor shushed us, who told us she needed her beauty sleep.
After my first year of camp, I wanted to return for the full eight weeks camp was open. The school year became a countdown to the day I returned to the mountains and saw my camp family again. For the next few years, until I aged out, I went to an overnight camp for the entire summer and loved it.
I learned lifelong skills
At camp, I learned skills I’ve carried throughout my life. Living with a dozen girls in a cramped bunk was great preparation for living in a dorm at college. Camp was the first place I was responsible for keeping my clothes folded and organized. I had to learn how to get along with all kinds of personalities, and there was no escape. I learned the value of unstructured time and how much I enjoyed being in nature.
These experiences helped me immensely as I transitioned to adulthood.
Sometimes I feel guilty that my kids aren’t getting the same experience
As much as I loved spending the entire summer at overnight camp, with one exception during the pandemic, my kids don’t go to traditional camps.
Sometimes, I feel selfish making this decision, but I love the unscheduled, unhurried summer days. Plus, I prefer to spend our summer budget on travel, which I enjoy too.
My kids’ summers are action-packed and fun. They get experiences I couldn’t have dreamed of as a child, like zipping around Rome on a Vespa and traveling to Warsaw to see Taylor Swift’s Eras tour. Still, I sometimes wonder if I am doing the right thing.
It didn’t occur to me that my parents wanted a break
It wasn’t until I became a parent myself that I realized my parents may have sent me to overnight camp to get a break.
With a deep understanding that can only come from experience, I understood that the motivation to send me to camp all summer may have been because of the exhaustion many parents feel trying to parent, work, and run a home, often without a meaningful break.
At first, I was mildly hurt by this realization. But then I smiled and silently congratulated my parents for coming up with a solution that gave all of us summers we loved.
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