You're showing your age.
Today kids turn in their cell phones--and keep another their parents gave them to cheat with. All the best families do it.
Another thing: kids take mini fridges to camp now. Really. The cabins are air-conditioned, kids get to zone out to their own devices. 'Camp' as we knew it is gone.
And I would cheer that flag today.
18
Shall we go, you and I, through the transitive nightfall of diamonds?
Thank you
4
Start by believing in yourself. (I hope you are worthy of that). Belief in the outside world is a matter of faith or hope, depending upon whatever else you may believe in. But, choose one or the other. And let's try not to scare each other, okay?
Ugh. Homesickness. If you've never experienced it, you have no idea.
From ages 6-9, I was sent to an all-girls Catholic sleep-away camp in New Hampshire.
Other campers seemed to love it. That's what confused me. I couldn't figure out how they could be so unaware of not only the impending dangers at camp (who were these teenagers in charge of us?) but also the near abandonment by our parents.
So, in addition to learning to swim and water ski and make stuff out of gimp, I learned that I was far from a happy-go-lucky kid. I learned to cry into a facecloth to muffle the sound.
Camp teaches all sorts of things.
13
I only went to camp once, and hated it. It had little to do with the camp itself and more to do with the testosterone of the young boys.
4
We go to camp and get poison ivy, and then a few years later we find ourselves in the jungle and get jungle rot and the snakes and bugs are a lot bigger. Luck is just getting the jungle rot.
4
"our cabin chose to be Israel — a country I could not have found on a map. But the Arab-Israeli War of 1967 was a recent memory, and as the Tuscaroras marched at the head of the parade, I was surprised how many other campers saw our Israeli flag and cheered.
I wonder if as many people would cheer that flag today."
Rest assured, Prof. Boylan that in my summer camp in the Poconos, albeit Jewish, those cheers would be just as loud today. And the same would be true in the dozen of summer camps in that region that I can think of off hand.
I would venture a guess that the same would be true in Camp Modin, across the lake from where you live.
And that is just one of the important things regarding heritage that I learned in camp.
12
"...as the years pass, you will find yourself pulled away from each other again and again, a little further each time, until at last, one way or another, you slip out of each other's arms for good." Bravo!
Be it eons or hours, a writer can toil in queasy aimlessness, those little devils conspiring to set him adrift, directionless. And then, and this is a mystery as true and baffling as any, all those brief strings of symbols pile into a single rowboat bedecked with an impossible number of oars, and by some mysterious magic they each suddenly grab hold and pull with perfect rhythm and synchronicity toward a shared horizon.
12
I was an introverted nerd in high school. The summer I was 16 my parents sent me to an academic "camp" at a university several states away, hoping I would start learning to live independently. They didn't anticipate that I would be one of the only boys in a sea of girls. I learned more about applied economics (scarcity, supply, demand) than about the subjects I was supposed to be studying :-) Definitely the best month of high school (and I ended up teaching economics).
25
Thank you, Jennifer. Your piece brings back such fond memories of my camp—literally a canoe paddle away from yours, on Center Pond—and my nineteen years as both camper and counselor there, learning life from adults and then teaching it to kids.
Yours is such a wonderfully evocative piece. I found myself closing my eyes and imagining the night sky—the blackest sky I have ever experienced, and plunging into the coldest water I can remember.
Becket is the most wonderful place—I still have my USGS topographic map of the Becket quadrangle framed in my office.
It has stamped in permanent ink who I am as a human being in a great big world.
Again, thanks for the memory.
10
I went to Girl Scout camp in the seventies which was a very feminist experience. We planned our own days, hiked, biked and camped in the beautiful Adirondacks of New York. I learned so much about nature and taking care of myself. I loved cooking over fires, walking in mountain creeks, and singing all of the time. (I still find myself humming some of the songs!) I missed home terribly, but then got home and found it quite dull next to the excitement of camp. Now I teach middle school and I am amazed at the end of eighth grade, when we take an overnight trip, how concerned and anxious many of the kids and parents are! Overnight camp helps kids develop agency and independence which is necessary for growing up!
13
I never had the opportunity for a camp. Well....that's not entirely true....I did a Explorer Scouts 2 week camp on a Marine base one summer in Okinawa; having been flown there from Yokota Air Base in Japan on a DC3 with a group of other scouts one of whom's Dad was the air base commander. I was a military brat.
It was a great adventure for a pre-teen. We lived like Marines, got up earlier to run prerequisite distances and exercise, ate heartily and then spent most of the rest of the day at the beach doing oceanographic stuff. If I got one thing out of the experience it was that I did NOT want to be a Marine. Heh! Camp in the civilian sense never occurred to any of us as life itself was one big camp.
Great story, though. The one thing I learned, and which I carry with me to this day, is that life's an adventure with lessons that keep coming at you your whole life thru. So keep your eyes open, you never know when one comes along. And enjoy the adventure. It all ends far too soon.
John~
American Net'Zen
7
I went to the same camp that you did! What a wonderful place it was.
6
My younger son started at camp when he was 7. Three weeks. He turned his back on us and was walking away when we said goodbye on visitors' day - he couldn't wait to get back. His very best friends are from camp, some from far flung spots. It was the best experience of his life - he worked there until well into his university days.
11
Mine was a girls' camp in Pennsylvania, the summers I was 11 and 12 - two weeks each time, as I recall. Home was not a happy place; my parents had been separated for several years, in will-they-or-won't-they-divorce limbo, and I was living with my depressed and angry mother. One might think I'd welcome camp as an escape, but I was so homesick (both summers) that my stomach hurt in a way I've never felt since. Yes, I made several trips to the camp infirmary - the nurse there laughed at me every time.
9
At this same date more or less, 50 years ago, my far too childish person was also at summer camp in Southern California.
My wonderful mother, knowing that I had not packed enough books, sent me a care package of juvenile paperbacks to see me through. She already knew but did not believe that I would happily read the same favorite over and over. I was truly touched by her thoughtfulness. Before she died 10 years ago she told me several times that she realized later in life that some books are worth reading more than once.
Summer camp was a revelation. I spent hours in the pool, in the craft area making copper enamel charms that made me feel like a jewelry designer, pursuing the most intricate lanyards out of plastic lace, acting in the worst imaginable skits (worst performer). And in the evening, reading.
So caught up in myself, I nevertheless managed to notice that all the counselors were gathered around a television in the lodge. Why? Neil Armstrong had just stepped onto the lunar surface.
Wow.
19
Thank you for such a sweet article and to share your memories. It brings up my own camp memories too.
It’s our first summer sending our son to camp in Maine, and he was homesick at first, but seems to be having a good time now. At least fewer letters arrive.
Something your article doesn’t touch on though is how much we miss him or parents miss the child. I have been shocked by the gut punch of missing out 11 year old around the apt. Was very unexpected.
10
Best camp of all - Dog camp. Instead of leaving your best friend behind while you drink too much, laze around and so nothing, you can have fun with your dog. Agility, freestyle dance, barn hunt, lure coursing, crafts (leash and collar making), hiking and swimming etc. Guarantee you will never be homesick. I recommend all dog owners ditch the kids and enjoy camp with their best friends.
8
My mom sent me to a girls' camp in VT back in the 80s for a few weeks at a time (around age 10-13) and I was horribly homesick every time. I made that very clear in my daily letters home. I even said things like "don't forget to pick me up!" in my letters. I struggled to make friends because I found the girls in my cabins to be very outgoing with no time for a quieter person like myself. One time I remember opening my bar of soap to find globs of toothpaste on it and the other girls were laughing uncontrollably. It was one of many camp "pranks" that the counselor didn't seem to notice. I also didn't like the long walk to the outhouse bathrooms in the pitch dark at night with only my small flashlight to guide me. Seemed scary to me. I couldn't wait for the last day. I loved the drive home. I felt completely relieved and excited to get back to the safety of home and all its comforts.
Now that I'm parent I was very careful not to push my kids into the overnight camp plan. I let them decide. My son had no interest and that's fine. My daughter went for several years and loved it and then became a counselor. Camp is a good fit for some kids but NOT for all....
50
I barely tolerated camp when I attended it in Pennsylvania while I was 13&14 year old, so I decided to send my two kids to overnight camp when they were only 8 years old. It worked out beautifully! They now beg to go BACK to camp when they arrive home on the bus after being gone for two weeks. Each session, they make new friends, and they learn that you can ALWAYS START OVER! Camp is expensive though, and even with scholarships it's unreachable for many individuals
15
Camp Yakewi , Camp Fire Girls in the 60's. Learned the stars, canoeing, and swimming. Never homesick though. Grateful for the peace and quiet. Thanks for the memories.
14
I loved going to camp, and went to each of our Girl Scout council's three camps. It was so nice to be away from parents and my sister. We sang great old camp songs that are so completely unPC no one sings them anymore. It's amazing that you can exist in a platform tent for a week with no a/c or television. And, the food was fabulous. The lunch ladies at the local elementary school generally worked for the local scout camps as well. Lots of fried food and pudding. This was when we had real food at school as well.
I wish there was camp for adults.
12
@Adrienne
My husband and I just returned from five nights at Cloud Camp on Cheyenne Mt. near Colorado Springs, CO. We had a great time.
4
@Adrienne There is. It's called "Survivor".
2
When I went to Girl Scout summer camp, all my fellow campers wanted to do was talk about boys. They had no other interests, or at least anything else they were fascinated by or wanted to talk about. They were profoundly boring, and I preferred a good book (or really any book), to their company.
18
I still have the first postcard our daughter sent at age 10. “I’m so homesick, I miss you so much. Camp is great! I’m having so much fun!”
26
I have read here that Modin is the oldest Jewish camp in "the region", on Wikipedia that it is the oldest in New England. It opened in 1922, the camp I went to in Maine, was certainly Jewish historically and as a plurality today, and predates Modin by more than a decade, and I doubt mine is the oldest still.
4
All kids should go to camp! Not to pretend to be Indians, but maybe to learn something about Indians, and how knowledge of the properties of plants and trees can make life possible and sometimes even good without modern technology. I learned to swim at camp in 1949. Also how to paddle a canoe, what milkweed looks like, what it's like to spend a day and a night in a tent when it's pouring rain. What peace can come from spending hours alone in the woods. Or lying in a field on a warm night with a counselor naming the stars. Or this:
To him who in his love of nature holds
Communion with her visible forms she speaks
A various language; for his gayer hours
She has a voice of gladness, and a smile
And eloquence of beauty, and she glides
Into his darker musings, with a mild
And healing sympathy, that steals away
Their sharpness ere he is aware.
-- Bryant
19
Thanks for rendering up in my soul the angst of my childhood.
7
My summer camp experiences are colored by the fact they were Boy Scout camps associated with overseas Air Force bases. We learned to start fires (and to blow things up), to use our hand axes to cut down bamboo for craft projects (and to make deadly spears which we actually heaved at each other). We learned to light a bonfire with a gas-soaked roll of toilet paper sliding down a wire from a nearby roof, igniting an equally gas soaked pile of scrap lumber. We learned how to let all the air out of the tires of the older boys bikes as they slept. In short, we had a grand old time. Injuries were minor. The memories are indelible.
14
I only went as a counselor (at the ripe old age of 21.). My parents could not have afforded to send us. For that matter, nor could my husband and I afford to send our kids to sleep away camp.
21
I remember camp quite vividly. (it involved me first kiss, and ahem. a little bit more)
I also remember it being the first time of cohabiting with 5 others in close proximity and experiencing all of their idiosyncrasies as well as body movements. (let alone odor)
I learned of camaraderie as well as well cliques. I learned an amazing amount away from mum and da, of which many of those lessons, I carry on to this day.
I think all should experience the lessons of camp.
14
Even when we could least afford it, we always sent our three kids to summer camp. Here in Ontario it is part of the fabric of life. Two of them went on to become counsellors. The lessons they learned were invaluable. This is the first summer when none of them are at camp. No more care packages to send. No more too-short, too-infrequent letters (always a good sign when they don't write, no more hours of laundry upon their return with great stories of canoe trips, water sports, drama productions, friendships and another summer of endless memories.
16
My first year at summer sleep away camp was 1957. Luckily my older brother was there but I don’t remember seeing him very much but At least that took away any trace of homesickness which was replaced by a new set of friends. Several of us are still in touch more than 60 years later. We sailed, waterskied, canoe paddled, fished and did all the things one could not do in the city. Given the chance the learning experience can’t be equaled.
21
The camp counselor trick reminded me of a tour I took in Turkey with an Art-History focus. We had a young male university student as a local guide. Some of the ladies on the tour were also very interested in the local flora and fauna and would ask him the name of things they saw. He usually had to confess ignorance. I told him all he had to do was tell them "little brown bird" or "big orange tree" in Turkish. They wouldn't know the difference and would think him brilliant.
12
Just dropped my 9-year-old off for his second summer at camp (1 month). So many great memories, and so much growth!
7
Great article. We just sent our oldest daughter to her second summer in sleepaway camp. Literally every day she’s gone I tear up. Yes, because we miss her dearly, but more so because I realize I will never have those amazing camp experiences myself again. And I examine her pictures with pure adoration - and jealousy! May we all be so happy.
23
The column was touching. With the column and the comments, I wondered how long each child spent at camp and at what age. Two months away from your parents at the age of 8 or so seems like a long time. I don’t know. I went for a week long camp at the age of 9 years ago and learned a lot but do remember the homesickness.
8
I spent six summers at two different girls’ camps. My memories are painful. I learned that I was an awful athlete, could not make any friends, and had horrible hair. My happiest moments were reading letters from home, parents’ visiting day, and the last day of camp. But before I knew it school began, and the same problems started up again in school.
32
@flipturn Did you reverse that trend, flipturn? Today, do you consider yourself a happy, contented person? I
wish you well, NY Times compatriot.
7
Thank you. I love your writing. I especially loved the sentence ‘Homesickness is the entry-level version of the kind of loss that with time becomes familiar.‘ beautiful.
51
Homesick...not me. For 10 years I ran to that camp bus excited to leave the school year and all that goes with that behind and more excited to spend the summer with friends. At camp in addition to getting good sports, flexing my creativity in arts and crafts and yeah boys, I learned: resilience, grit (broke my nose and cheekbone playing tennis)how to lead peers (captain of a Color War Team,) how to be self-reliant, what it means to be a good friend and the best--how to be a really great sister. I still have all my swimming medals, group photos and most importantly, friends.
37
I spent four summers at a boys camp east of Cleveland on the shores of Lake Erie. Though the days were filled with activities and events one still stays with me to this day. We were on the rifle range target shooting. When the range master called for us to stop. A rabbit had wandered onto the range. I can still remember this former Army Master Sargent speak very clearly and plainly to a group of 10-14 year olds. “ If you don’t need it for food or you are not in immediate danger leave it alone”. We watched and waited. I heard in his voice an empathy which came from experience I was too young to really understand but could still feel it's power. From that moment I saw the world and my place in it differently. His humanity still touches and moves me.
131
What a beautiful piece, Jennifer, one of your best, I think. I love the inclusion of the Billy Collins poem. My youngest child is at this moment at camp. For three weeks. While my feelings have blossomed from the "homesick" you describe into the full loneliness you predicted, your writing underscores what I know to be true: she is doing the best thing for herself right now. She is growing up.
Alle C. Hall
Seattle
24
When you send your children to camp you give them an opportunity to learn who they are, what they are capable of doing intellectually and physically, and you are giving them an opportunity to learn to work with other people. You won't lose them when they go off to Summer Camp, but they will be different, and perhaps better when they return.
My wife went to camp for years and learned to play any sport with a ball, and how to write and direct a musical, how to accompany kids on the piano. She also learned how to get along with just about anyone. I recommend sleep away camp for everyone. They will learn to address and most often overcome anything that confronts them in life.
54
@Joel Friedlander It sounds like a good option for your wife, but not all kids get the same benefit from camp as she did. Two of my three kids told me who they were by refusing to go to summer camp after I "made" them go. One was desperately homesick, and told me that it was miserable for her to lie in the tent cabin at night missing me. She had an OK time, but what was different when she returned is she was able to more firmly refuse to go to summer camp again. I respected her wishes. She now is studying to be a psychologist, so I guess camp taught her about the importance of attachment. The other one is more independent, and thought camp was spending way too much time with people she didn't know for no reason. She also had an OK time, but refused to go again. She learned all that teamwork stuff and physical challenging stuff with sports, where she saw a clear purpose, and didn't require her to sing silly songs with strangers. She chose instead to spend summers when she was a teenager traveling around by herself. For both of these kids, sleepaway camp was not fun or empowering and it was mostly a waste of time for them and a waste of money for me. My other kid loved camp, and went for 8 years straight. She was like me, who loved camp. From my kids, I learned that sleep-away camp is great for some kids, but not everyone.
13
I'm not sure what to make of this piece. Is the swamp story a metaphor for first learning to mistrust and/or be dubious about authority figures? Is it just a nostalgic reminiscence about what seems to be an important time to the author's life? Or is it about that first loss of innocence that all of us go through, albeit through different means and different experiences.
Regardless, it got me thinking a bit of my own one- or two-week experiences at church camp in my home state of Ohio, remembering the songs I sang, the hikes I made, and the fleeting friends I made. My time there was too short to get homesick, but remembering it all brings up a bit of a homesickness for times long past.
25
I would have loved to have gone away to camp. I was a very shy and anxious child and I think it would have been good for me. But my parents were both a bit narcissistic and very rarely considered what might have been good for me. I don't think I would have been homesick for them since I wasn't really bonded with them. They'd left me as a toddler with a housekeeper to go on a month long trip abroad and I never trusted them after that.
22
Kids learn at summer camp that there are worse things then homesickness. And parents learn when their kids are at camp that their kids can actually get along okay without parental 24/7 involvement. Not that the lessons last when the kids come home, but at least it's a start.
9
I spent three weeks at camp Wel-Met, one wonderful summer! I think it was at their Narrowsburg location! We too had American Indian themed days! However, unlike the author, learning to survive in the wilderness, as the Indians did, I looked at as an admiral trait, and one of the values to be admired! It was uplifting to be like an Indian, and appreciate their legacy!
3
@Counter Measures Summer camp, especially at Wel-Met, was a great experience. I learned how to build a lean-to, make a fire pit, cook in the woods, and a host of other skills. I learned to get along with 20 other kids in the same bunk. Summer camp teaches independence. I insisted that both my kids went to summer camp and they both loved it. I wish I could go back.
8
@David Bertan. Wel-Met was an amazing, life-long experience. You can find old friend and memories in the Wel-Met Camp Facebook group.
2
Ms Boylan: Your definition of homesickness brought tears to my eyes. Thank you for this piece.
21
Camping may not be for everyone and I think the parents attitudes have a lot to do with it. My parents were outdoor people. I LOVED camp as a Girl Scout 55 years ago. I loved the crafts, the outdoor adventures, boating and swimming. I was completely secure in knowing that my parents would come and get me at the end of the week or be there for me if there was an emergency.
I think I always loved nature being outside even as a small child. I studied environmental science in college and graduate school and was so happy to have a career in the US National Park Service.
I still go camping including a week-long paddling trip on the Delaware River every year for the last 25 years! Now I bring my great niece who is gaining her own appreciation for the natural world we live in. Now we run “Camp Grandpa” for our family each summer. They all comfortable in the outdoors and look forward to the family time as well as being immersed in nature. Spending a week outside resets your “clock” and expands our perspective on the world. Yeah Camp!
20
You have to know your child. Camp was not for me. But my daughter adores it. I think the world can be divided into camp lovers and non campers.
34
SO true. I never loved camp, but one of my sisters did: we nicknamed her Miss Camp. She sent all of her children to camp; I never considered sending mine.
14
Same here. I hated day camp so much that I never went to sleepaway (although I did go to programs on college campuses and so was away from my family) but myngurks, somewhat to my surprise and pleasure, love it.
7
I went to camp in the early 1960s and what I learned was this odd practice of having all the boys, when it was time to go to the indoor pool swim naked. My younger brother and me became very good baseball players because we always avoided the pool favoring the baseball diamond instead.
1
I strongly suggest that anyone who has the means send their child to a well-run camp (many are not well-run - do your homework). Kids learn to socialize, try new activities, be more self-sufficient, and to challenge themselves.
Camp was a formative experience for me and I am now giving that experience to my children - my oldest son is now in his first summer at camp. He was initially hesitant to go but once he saw his first overnight camp he immediately understood, and he is now having the time of his life, but, more importantly, is also showing tremendous growth.
30
i was, for a brief 2 years or so, a girl scout. i allowed myself to be persuaded, much against my will, to spend a long weekend at a girl scout camp. i soon found out, i was not meant for the wilderness or for the wild of being thrown in with dozens of girls i didn't know and who had different agendas from me. i enjoyed making the coffee can stove, but honestly cannot remember another single thing i enjoyed. i hated team sports, i hated competition, i could already swim and go to the city pool. i could do crafts at home far better than there. i missed my parents, my siblings and my friends. i missed the city streets and the freedom to roam without any adult supervision. a year or so later, when my brothers and sisters went to church camp for two weeks, i emphatically refused. my parents still had two children too young to go to camp so they weren't too devastated that i stayed home... camp is not every child's joy.
55
@bronxbee, I have to agree. I was a boy scout in a different country but with similar feelings. I went to camp in crowded villages, in urban environments and in hot and dusty places. At that time when I was 13, I "enjoyed" it but looking back, my hatred for camping is based on that time. Now, when someone, asks me to camp or even go on hikes, I take great pleasure in turning them down.
No attached bathrooms, no hot food served by others who make them. I don't think so.
5
Summer camp taught me how to be alone around people.
Don't get me wrong. I learned how to shoot a bow, start a fire, build a shelter, tie knots, and all the other interesting things you learn outdoors. Skills that would prove surprisingly useful in adult life. I spent I don't know how many years working as a professional in the outdoor industry. The carabiners you use on rock walls and ropes courses have to come from somewhere. The difference between summer camp and Tommy Caldwell or Beth Rodden isn't so different.
At the same time though, you're essentially a young child or young adult getting chaperoned around with a big group of strangers for however many weeks. I'm sorry but a platform tent full of 10 year old boys gets old pretty quick. Daily activities notwithstanding.
I learned to enjoy reading outside in just about any sort of weather. Better still was the times where you would just disappear. Find a nice rock by a marsh or lake and let everyone else have "fun" doing crafts and sports. I'm around you but I don't need to talk to you. I prefer the company of crickets and fireflies.
Far from homesickness, summer camp was a relief. The only thing I missed was soda.
15
I learned plant and leaf identification as a Boy Scout. I later was an occasional Nature counselor, pointing out what I had learned. One camper chose not to believe me when I pointed out the large, shiny poison ivy vine. Yes, she did get it.
10
Lovely, thank you so much. I went to camp in Germany when I was eleven and had a wonderful time. I got to ride a horse around a small ring and then I was allowed to lead another camper's horse while he or she (it's been a long time since I was eleven) Just held the reins. I had such a great time that on visitors day my parents had to search for me because I was down at the horse ring. It still makes me all warm inside just to think about it.
18
Your references to Native Americans are poignant. I spent 8 summers working at camps in 2 states. There were a few skits with white counselors dressed as Native Americans and veered into unconscious racism. We sure honor our indigenous populations strangely.
Homesickness is real. I was a homesick 8yo my first time, but took baby steps towards in independence. I'll be sending my kids, but hopefully prepare them for what they'll experience, both the good and bad.
9
Frankly, I hated camp. It was all about competition. Nothing else mattered. there was no protection. I learned how cruel 12 and 13 year olds could actually be. Luckily, my parents discovered hostelling trips which were run by the 92nd Street y at that time. Perhaps they still are. These little communities bicycling and staying in hostels we're run on a cooperative basis with rotating assigned jobs that everybody had to do. It worked as perfectly as could be expected and I very much enjoyed my new friends. Perhaps it was just that I found an arena in which more participation what's more competitive. And, perhaps that was the lesson after all.
28
@Fir I loved camp. My experiences at Camp Tabor are still with me. The five years I was there were punctuated by warmth, affection and togetherness When camp was over in the first three years, I cried for two weeks longing to be back with my summer friends. Unfortunately, camp was at a time(1944-1949) when cell phones and the internet and technology as we know it today were far into the future. In the last two years after camp, my friends and I would correspond by letter and phone, but we would meet only rarely as our homes were scattered throughout the tri-state area and into Pennsylvania. I agree, though about the competition. The second to last week of camp was devoted to "team week"and the camp was divided in half, competing against each other in all activities . I hated it, absolutely hated it and was so grateful when 'team week" was over. I wasn't able to articulate it then, but, setting friends against each other, I thought was barbaric. The last year of camp, "team week' was eliminated. Unfortunately, though, after that last year, so was my lovely Camp Tabor. It is now Camp Ramah in the Poconos.
8
Ouch. I sincerely felt I was giving my kids an experience that I'd longed for and never had - fun with lots of kids my own age, experiences not filtered by my parents, experimenting. I think I better talk to my kids again.
10
Keep in mind that homesickness is not a dangerous or even negative thing. Missing our loved ones and our home is part of life...it means we love our family and our habitat. This is positive, and it’s not like they’re dead and gone. In a month, two at most, you are reunited.
4
From the comfort of a loving home my parents sent my brother and me to a summer camp in the hills of Tennessee, run by a retired Army lieutenant colonel. 1968. "Loving", "comfort" and "parent" were antonyms for that place. There I learned to accept a truth played many times since - "We're on our own."
28
I want to know more about this anti-camp. And whether your parents knew what it was like before they sent you there.
1
"... as the years pass, you will find yourself pulled away from each other again and again, a little further each time, until at last, one way or another, you slip out of each other’s arms for good."
I'm deeply mindful of each passing moment with my teenage kids. As the parent of twins, I will become an empty nester all at once. I am occasionally tearful about it even though that moment is two years away.
But nonetheless, it makes me proud that when my kids go away now even for the summer, they are confident and happy to be away - and to come home at the end of their journey.
41
All the years of camp I went to could have been avoided with a quick reading of Lord of the Flies (but then it wasn’t about me, it was clearing the house for two months for my parents).
37
@Robert
Your reference to Lord of the Flies is so dead on. I never saw more cruelty that I witnessed at summer camp. It still haunts me. It really does depend on your personal needs. I agreed to send my children to camp against my better judgment. My daughter loved it (and would like to own a camp one day). My non-athletic son never fit in. Years later we learned he was bullied. That haunts me as well.
13
...my brother, at a boys' sleepaway camp in new hampshire many years ago, was asked by his counselor to pick the sleep-outside site for the group. he chose a massive area of poison ivy.
42
@linh
Ahh, but did he learn anything? Can he at least identify poison ivy now?
3