“Uhhhh…. I’ve never done this before.”
During so much of the summer, directors are constantly looking many steps ahead, planning for future sessions while current ones are happening. The beauty of Junior Camp is that there’s nothing more to look forward to, and as we finish the summer strong, we can be fully present with our campers in the here and now.
That attitude led me out of the office, away from my email, to the Tarzan Rope swing where I helped out during 4th and 5th period.
I love our swim lake. When camp was first built, all of the original cabins were built on its banks. 105 years later, it continues to be the heart and soul of this summer camp community.
Like climbing the beanstalk or trail riding on a horse (both accomplished today by many cabins), the swim lake gives girls the opportunity to step outside of their comfort zone into a new world of growth and possibility. Many of our campers aren’t used to swimming in water where you can’t see the bottom. They aren’t accustomed to swimming alongside tadpoles, fish, and frogs, and they’ve never had the chance to fly off a giant rope swing or cruise down a steep water slide. Here at Illahee, they do it. They might be scared, have questions (lotssss of questions), or even want to wait and watch a few people go before them, but nearly everyone at the lake today gave the Tarzan a shot.
One after another, they walked up and, as if they had rehearsed together beforehand, said: “I’ve never done this before.” Reaching their hands forward to grab the rope and pushing their butt back to provide some sense of balance, I coached them on what to do and counted one… two… three… and they were off! The looks of fear on the platform changed to exhilaration in the air, and eventually to big ear-to-ear smiles when they rose from the water. It’s a happy thing to witness. For anyone having a bad day, a doctor might prescribe spending some time at the Illahee swim lake for a serotonin boost.
The world beyond our comfort zone is filled with failure. I watched plenty this afternoon as girls couldn’t quite hold on to the rope and flopped off in a less-than-graceful maneuver. Still, they landed in the water, popped right up, and said: “I want to go again!” We don’t avoid failure at camp. Rather, we try to create an environment where failure doesn’t hurt too bad. As someone who has tried and failed many times at a Tarzan backflip, landing straight on my back, I’ve come close to the limit on that pain scale.
After a full day of activities and sunshine, campers spent the last period before dinner in their cabins planning their “Airband” routine while a summer thunderstorm rolled in. Airband is an Illahee tradition where cabins take the stage in the Rec Lodge to perform a lip sync dance routine to a favorite song. We do it in every session, and campers young to old are invested. It’s a great time to be silly and bond as a cabin. We piled into the dining hall for spaghetti, salad, fruit, garlic bread, and homemade brownies. The thunderstorm caused our neighborhood to lose power, but we kicked on the office generator and enjoyed a dimly lit dinner.
Everyone mosied on down to the Rec Lodge for Airband, where, thanks to backup plans, generators, and battery-powered floodlights, the show went on! Cabins young and old dazzled us with their moves and occasionally quite impressive choreography. My favorite part of Airband isn’t the performance itself; it’s the smiles and giggles between cabinmates, the campers in the audience singing along, and the bonds that are forming, building this community, one lip-synced song at a time.
I imagine for most first-year campers, getting up on stage, dancing in front of over a hundred people with seven new friends was something that falls into the same category of “I’ve never done this before.”
Yeah… That’s the point.
Day is done.
Lucas