We must as parents be proactive in making the camp experience as safe as we can.
Into the Woods - Dedicated to Jeff Grey
Into The Woods During the fall and winter months my main role is as a student. I go to my classes, I study, and I live for a break from school on the weekends. During the summer months, however, my main role is as a camp counselor at an outdoors camp. I am known as, “Rach K,” I wear crazy colored clothes, talk in a hoarse voice from yelling so much, and encourage the campers to get dirty, sing loudly, and have a ton of (safe) fun. This past summer was my fourth summer of leading 14, 15, and 16-year-old adolescents out on trips into the backcountry, so I know that having experiences in nature is life changing and helps people to gain a better sense of the world and the people around them.
All of my campers leave for home at the end of the summer with an understanding that the world is a much bigger place than they had originally thought. I believe that their experiences at camp bring most of them from adolescence to young adulthood. There are less than 30 of us, staff included, that attend this camp for six weeks. The close-knit community quickly turns into a family, as we must rely on each other to keep things running smoothly while at camp. It is so beautiful to see how loving and caring everyone becomes. Each and every person has the opportunity to leave behind the complicated and hectic situations that they have at home, and come to a place in the woods where our priorities are much more relevant to our ability to function and survive as opposed to the less critical things in our “normal” day to day lives. After gaining all that they can from this wonderfully, relaxed setting, they return home with the confidence that they need to get through tough situations, the drama at school, and their teenaged insecurities. In addition to these incredible emotional changes, my campers also learn how much they can physically push themselves after they finish such tasks as portaging a canoe on their backs for almost two miles. For some of my campers, their camp experience is the first time that they have gone camping, and I do not mean car camping. On our hiking trips we hike around ten miles a day on terrain that can sometimes be very treacherous. We carry everything that we will need for the next five days on our backs. The campers learn how to motivate themselves and their fellow campers through such methods as singing, telling stories, or playing word games. Sometimes though, these methods are not enough, and one camper will end up in the back of the line with a counselor, really struggling to take the next step. The end of the day for that camper brings them an incredible amount of self-confidence.
The challenges that people find in nature are almost always beneficial. A camper of mine this past summer had an incredibly meaningful epiphany while we were stuck in our canoes during a sudden downpour. We had just decided after a really long day, that the campsite we had arrived at was not quite what we had in mind. We decided to canoe across to the other side of the lake when it started to pour. Most of my campers were not very happy about our situation, however, this specific camper had what I would call, a complete meltdown. He began to yell at me and whine in the way that an elementary school child would instead of a young man in high school. Not being in the most patient mood myself, I yelled right back at him, and told him that it would be best to find a way to enjoy the rain, because it did not look like it was going to end soon and we had an entire lake to cross; We were not about to set up tents in the middle of a lake. I do not normally yell at my campers, so this camper was understandably quite taken aback by my tone. A couple of seconds later, when his partner in his canoe began singing, to help him along in his new adventure to regain a positive attitude, he made a critical decision to join in. By the time we had reached the other campsite, he had gotten all of his fellow campers in an unusually positive mood considering how wet and cold they were.
The Northern Sky
The day after we returned from our canoe trips, he shared his epiphany with the group while we went around the circle to share something meaningful from our trips. He had learned that having a positive attitude can make any situation much better. I am sure that he had heard this from someone or read it in a book somewhere before, but he only truly understood how far a positive mood can take you after he had been in that downpour and was forced to be happy anyway. In the woods, we can leave behind all of the trivial things in our lives and focus on the simplest tasks, such as putting one foot in front of the other, or getting our canoes to the other side of a lake. In the front country (meaning the city), we must focus on stressful things like studying for a biology test or finishing a proposal for work. We worry about what to make for dinner and even when we will have time to take a shower. In the backcountry however, things become much easier. We do not focus on when we will get to our campsite; all we know is that we will get there when we get there. Once there, we will make our pre-planned dinner and then relax before it gets dark and we decide its time to go to bed. Everything is slower in the woods; thus, we have time to reflect on what is truly important to us in life. I have been spending the last eight summers of my life in the woods. The majority of these summers were in the woods of Northern Ontario and the others were in the woods of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. For four of these summers I was a camper and I learned so much about myself that I have no idea what kind of person I would be today had I not had the time that I did in the woods. For the other four summers I have had the opportunity to watch young adults change dramatically for the better and it is something that I would not give up for the world. While they are learning how to motivate themselves to keep hiking on the longest day of the hiking trip or how to keep climbing up a cliff when they think its going to be impossible, I am learning how and what to say to these different personality types to get them through these challenging experiences that nature has in store for them. The communication skills that I have gained from my interactions with my fellow co-staff and my campers are things that will help me in all aspects of life; school, future careers, and family life. In a place where we have limited things to focus on and very specific goals, we have more than enough time to learn how to handle our disagreements and miscommunications.
On the last night of camp we do our last “pass the candle,” where each person gets a turn to say whatever they want about their camp experience. While many of my campers cry on this night because they will be leaving the next day, I sit in the circle, beaming, while listening to all of the incredibly deep thoughts that come from all of them on the things that they have learned about themselves and life. It is my favorite part of camp; it is when I get to see the change that nature has had on my camper’s lives. It is such a moving experience to hear the thoughts that come out of these young adults.
Having experiences in nature is most definitely life changing and it helps people to gain a better sense of the world and the people around them. After camp it is no wonder why all of us remain in contact with our “camp friends.” We have shared such awesome and intense times with each other that many people in the world will never be able to experience. We communicate on the same level and respond to the happenings in the world in very similar ways. For all of this, me must thank our time spend in the woods.
