My 14-year-old daughter breaks my heart every summer as she joyfully hops on her camp bus to her so called “home away from home”. She leaves this Sunday so I asked her if she’d write my July blog for me. I didn’t tell her what she could or should write about and this is what she gave me:
Every summer I go to an all girls’ camp in Northern Wisconsin. Not only is my summer camp for girls, but it’s also for unity, the strength to be courageous, and most importantly sisterhood. The average person probably doesn’t understand why we camp girls get so excited every summer. They think to themselves, “Who cares if blue team or white team wins? It’s just a color.” or even the classic “Why would you want to spend 4 to 8 weeks of your summer six and a half hours away from home?”
Well to all of you non-campers, those 4 to 8 weeks of our summer means more to us then just learning to ski around the lake or making a pretty necklace in arts & crafts. Yes, those activities are important, but the real reason we go to camp is for the thrill of knowing that we are truly loved and cared for no matter who we are. At camp you’re allowed to sing at the top of your lungs even though you are probably tone-deaf. And at camp you’re allowed to join archery even if you can’t aim like Katniss Everdeen. No matter what age, race, or personality, every single girl is cared about and loved unconditionally.
My parents absolutely love that I go to camp. They love that I’m free to be whoever I want to be and I’m in an environment that I will be accepted no matter what. My mom loves that I can be a dancer, or a skier, or even a gymnast at camp. Although my dad loves these things too, I think he also loves that there are no boys at camp. Because there are no boys, the pressure to change who we are to impress the boys has been lifted off our shoulders. We don’t feel the need to wear makeup or act a certain way. We feel beautiful in our skin because at camp we are loved for our pure and true self.
A lot of people believe that if you put a large group of girls together you get judgment and drama. People think that the camp must be filled with tears and constant nastiness. It must be something in the air at camp, but our group of girls breaks that stereotype in so many ways. We only have a short amount of time to be together so why waste it judging and criticizing other girls? Girls are also “known” to be insecure and uncomfortable with themselves. But being camp girls helps change all that. At camp I feel more comfortable about myself then anytime at school. Yes at home I do have an amazing support team to tell me I’m awesome and I can be any one I want, but I know there will always be someone to judge and bring me down outside of my family. At camp we don’t need people to remind us how great we are, we know we can be ourselves because no one wants us to be anything different.
In 8 short weeks an unbreakable bond is created among campers and counselors. This bond has made it so we aren’t just friends, we’re sisters. I know that when I’m at camp I have over 300 sisters I can rely on. We believe that there is an unspoken pact between us to never judge or criticize another girl’s actions. This pact has made our bond so strong that not only are we sisters for those 8 weeks, but we’re sisters for life. Each summer we are drawn back to camp to experience the feeling of being emotionally safe, to try new things, and to be brave. We love to know that after spending all night fighting to win the color war, we can return back to the cabin to laugh, cry and tell secrets with one another because the simplest thing about camp is that we love each other.
From: Michelle Kaplin
Love,
Lisa Kaplin Psy. D. PCC