Blog Series – Letter to My First-Year Camp Self
Dear Heather,
Congratulations, because you are about to embark on a lifelong journey that will be the foundation of your happiest childhood memories and the creation of some of your lifelong friends. As you look back at your time as a child, your time spent at Gwynn Valley will be the most magical and freeing part of it. You will have more fun and more novel experiences than ever before, and it will plant seeds of love for the mountains and the outdoors that will last you a lifetime, and become a key part of who you are.
Twenty years down the road, you will still remember doubling over with laughter during evening program, making pizzas on your campout, and watching sunsets while catching lightning bugs over the Gatehouse Green. You will ride a horse for the first time here, beginning a love of all things equestrian. You will run down the green holding hands with your counselors singing “Colors of the Wind,” making the song come to life as you feel the wind on your face and the breeze through your hair, looking out at an impossibly blue sky and lush green field. The friends you make these next two weeks will run out of your cabin on Opening Day next year to welcome you with open arms, really solidifying that this magical place is to be your home away from home. You will love the farm more than you ever thought you would, as you bottle feed calves and hold baby goats (while you let them chew on your hair in gross albeit very cute favorite pastime of theirs). As you pick veggies, you will look up at the mountains you are nestled between and realize what it truly means to be in a valley; the outline of the mountains will awe you with their grandeur. As you grow up, the mountains will slowly start to seem smaller in stature, but forever evoke that same sense of wonder.
These next two weeks will be some of the greatest of your young life, and I am simply thrilled for you, if admittedly a little jealous; I would absolutely love to go back and be in your shoes for a day. There aren’t too many times in life we experience magic, but you are about to, over and over again for the next two weeks. Try every single activity, you never know what may surprise you! While you hate bugs at home, searching for crawdads in the creek and other small critters under the lodge are a lot more interesting when you’re at a summer camp, and you’ll find you become a braver and more adventurous version of yourself here than you are at home. Soak up every minute and be grateful for every day, because it will go by all too fast. Before you know it, you will be returning as a counselor, creating wonderful memories with campers as you now pay it forward, and care for children the way you were so cared for as a child. Say hi to Anne and Grant, they will play key roles in your life going forward! Wear your sunscreen, enjoy every bite of our famous cookie cake, and for goodness’s sake write to Mom and Dad more, they are making it possible for you to be here, after all! See you in twenty years!
Love,
Heather
