Fall Harvests
With cooler weather and just the barest beginnings of color in the trees around camp, it’s safe to say that Fall is here. Fall brings a whole host of exciting things at camp. Chief among them the applications from excited returning and soon-to-be GV campers! We also get to watch the eager anticipation of our returning staff, who started applying in earnest a few weeks ago.
Where my mind has been drifting these past few weeks, however, is to a smaller, more seasonal task than enrollment or staffing: the Fall Harvest. Perhaps it’s recency bias. After all, our year-round team has been down at the Farm these past two weeks. Picking corn to dry out in the corncrib and picking peppers to donate to The Sharing House in town. Granted, these harvests pale in comparison to the haul of veggies our campers help bring in over the Summer. But despite its much smaller scale, I find the Fall Harvest to be a rife and timely metaphor for what camp means to us and what camp does for us, even in these cooler months.
For one, being down at the Farm has raised a persistent question: what are the fruits of our labor that we reap in the quieter months between summers? Campers return to their school schedules. Staff return to university or jump into the workforce. It just so happens that the Fall is when we tend to see the majority of our staff applications come in. I don’t sit in on as many of our Staff in Training or new staff interviews as I used to, but when I do, I’ve noticed a pattern in the answers to one of my favorite questions.
“Tell me about a time that you felt like you were becoming a better version of yourself.”
Their answers range from achieving a difficult task, to learning a new skill, to being away at school for the first time, or taking on a leadership role at work. But they all rhyme with one another in one key aspect. Each speaks to a newfound sense of independence. Yes! That’s camp! It’s the opportunity to challenge yourself and your abilities. To grow and experience something new without all the usual supports we grow accustomed to at home.
The outcomes of camp are endless, but independence feels especially important to foster in our world today. The impulse to remove obstacles from the path of the people we love is a natural one. It’s profound what happens when we let them meet those obstacles head-on instead. A camper discovers they forgot a rain jacket, gets a little wet, and learns to pack more carefully next time. Just as importantly, they learn that being a little wet is survivable, and that they can handle it themselves.
There’s a term in farming called gleaning: gathering the “leftovers” after the main harvest. Not all of your vegetables are liable to ripen at the same time, so some of the best of what a field has to offer turns up after the big picking is done. The more colloquial use of the word is to better understand something. Like a concept or a life event. To piece it together bit by bit.
I hope that all of you are having a season of gleaning in your home lives. Noticing all the small and big ways that your campers are showing that newfound sense of independence. Maybe it’s packing their own lunches, comfortably organizing a sleepover with school friends, or remembering to grab a rain jacket when it’s raining outside.
The lifecycle of camp has a rhythm all its own: vitality in the Summer, reflection in the Fall and Winter, and rejuvenation and anticipation in the Spring. It’s easy for us to identify the work we do in the immediate buildup to Summer and during the season itself. The hiring, the training, the packing lists, the loooong days. It’s harder to see the payoff, which tends to arrive quietly, at kitchen tables and in school hallways. Fall is when we get to gather the fruits of a laborious Summer. Thank you for the part you all play in the harvest and here’s looking forward to next year’s planting.
