If you had the privilege and blessing to attend camp, you’ve realized college is just like camp with books. Thank God for camp because without it, I’m not sure how I would have survived college. We can thank camp for more than just summer memories….we can thank camp for life lessons.
Independence. Camp teaches you how to survive without your parents helping you make every decision. Growing up at camp helps you build confidence in your decision making skills. It’s scary being a Freshman in college and it’s so helpful to know that whether it be shaving your legs for the first time or if you should really buy those boxers from the Six Flags Gift Shop, camp helped you grow your sense of independence.
15 girls. 2 showers. 55 minutes. Imagine you didn’t go to camp and weren’t prepared to share a bathroom with a whole floor of random girls your Freshman year. If you can survive shower hour, you can definitely survive your freshman dorm bathroom. You’re also equipped with the best shower shoes around.
You can make a costume for a theme party out of literally anything. Going to camp provides you with the skills of knowing how to create the perfect costume out of anything. Newspaper fashion shows taught you all you know about quickly pulling together a costume for whatever theme party is thrown your way. You also know how to do every braid possible and are a straightening iron master.
You’re used to the dining hall. Part of going to camp is fostering your love for peanut butter and nutella sandwhiches as well as figuring out how you’re going to create a gourmet meal out of chicken patties, cucumbers, and whole wheat wraps. 11 years at camp teaches you how to make a meal out of any situation. Freshman year dinning halls are no longer scary after seeing camp in an uproar when there is a cream cheese shortage on Bagel Sundays.
How to be a friend. Camp friends always hold a special place in your heart. Whether your can see your camp friends every day at school or only see them when they come down the Boca to visit their Grandmas, camp taught you how to keep in touch with people and maintain relationships no matter the distance. In college, you meet people from all over (half of these people are probably your camp friend’s best friend from home) and camp gives your the tools and confidence to know you will keep in touch with your college (and camp) friends no matter near or far.
Positive Body Image. At camp, there is no such thing as privacy and therefore you learn really quickly to be confident in your own skin. At camp, you learned to celebrate your body and you’re able to help share that positive message with the girls you meet in college. If you have a roommate who didn’t go to camp, she might be a little weirded out when you keep walking around basically naked.
Color War preps you for tailgates. The intensity of Game Day attire is always positively correlated with past Color War Leaders. Color War taught you what it means to bleed Gold (…or Blue or Green or White or whatever other color team you were on) and it also creates a mutual understanding that you must have the best Game Day apparel around. You understand the importance of going all out and dressing head to toe in one color. You therefore understand that there is a different between navy blue and royal blue Sofee shorts.
Being a counselor is better than any “real job” out there. If you were a camp counselor, you know what it means to have a REAL JOB. Working as a camp counselor teaches you more about responsibility, compassion, leadership and team work skills than any other internship possibly could. Of course there comes a time when you move on and into the “real world,” but don’t give up on camp. Teaching a camper how to shoot a free-throw or watching one of your girls perform in the camp play will always beat getting a CEO a tall non-fat latte. Being a counselor teaches you more about yourself and what it means to be a leader than any internship could. Being a counselor is a real job.
Now go post this on your camp friend’s wall and text in your camp group chat because I know you miss each other. No matter how old we get, reminiscing about camp never goes out of style.