If you're reading this, I'm in the woods
If you’re reading this, I’m at camp!
If you’re new here, I’ve gone to the same camp every year for 17 years, and am the adult director. It’s my favorite place on earth. I can’t even really elaborate on what about instant lemonade, sleeping in the bare wind, and showering with lukewarm water for a week is so appealing. It just works - and so far, I’ve not found any other experience quite so effective.
I think there’s probably something about releasing my inner child for a week, but also…we crave the freedom, right? To be off the grid, to splash in the water, to tell stories in the dark. It’s literally how we got our start, and it’s this thing we’re all trying to get back to, in our own way. When I was 20, I moved to LA, and became neurotically convinced that’s the end of the line for me. No more camp. I spun out in a very silly way about it before I was gently informed that I could just drive up I-5. Then came the career - people in LA love a retreat when it’s a rehab in Malibu, but for some reason volunteering at a camp is an insurmountable barrier. I’ve had lots of smart people who care about me and my professional work tell me to stop taking a week off, but respectfully your honor, you weren’t there. You don’t know what it’s like. So until one of those people has woken up to a kid intensely watching a snail slide over the railing of a cabin, or had a friend hand them a bracelet they spent all day on, or laughed in a kitchen before then came up, I’m gonna keep doing my thing.
I was 10 years old the first time I went camp, and I remember thinking I was the luckiest kid in the world to be there. I guess I still am.
See you guys next week.
x Justina
