The days are long, the weeks are short – we say it all the time!  And as I get older (and maybe a little wiser, I hope), that statement resonates more and more.

Sometimes during the long days, I forget what day it is….except for Shabbat when we are wearing whites – that’s a giveaway!  But at the end of every week we sit in Solarium – usually it’s after Havdalah Services and tonight it was after the CAs’ Separation Ceremony where they sang “Find Your People” by Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors.  What a perfect way to end this session.  Check out the first bit of lyrics from this song.  They are SO camp:

You gotta find your people
The ones that make you feel alright
The kind you want to stay up with all night
You got to find your people
The ones that make you feel whole
That won’t leave your side when you lose control
The ones that don’t let you lose your soul

You gotta find your people
The ones that get the joke
Who understand what you’re saying before a word is spoke
You gotta find your people

And after the CAs finished singing this song and the tears of many began, we took some time to reflect on our time at camp as we enjoyed our final slide show of the first four weeks.  Everyone cheered as they saw their friends on the big screen – diving into the pool, climbing on the Adventure Park, playing kickball, petting the goats on the farm, making an arts & crafts project, singing and dancing on stage, baking in cookery, creating a podcast in multimedia.

SO much happens in one day at camp – activities, friendships, meals, connections, laughter, mail, snacks, flashlight time, songs, late night talks, and the list goes on and on.  Our photographers run around camp doing an absolutely incredible job capturing these moments every day!

And now that we are ending our first long session, it is a time of reflection.  What new friendships and connections did we make?  What activities did we try?  How have we grown?  Are we different people today than we were on the first day of the summer when we walked through the gates of camp?

Tomorrow morning will be filled with tears, hugs, jibbit-filled Crocs, searching through Lost & Found and exhausted campers heading home.  We hope they have enough memories to last them until they are back at camp next summer!

And our staff will get a short break to rest and rejuvenate as we get ready to do it all again starting on Monday morning when we welcome 438 campers for our second session of our 102^nd summer!

Shabbat Shalom!

Alicia