One of our favourite camp traditions is honouring people celebrating their tenth summer at camp with a custom embroidered jacket and inviting them to speak about what has kept them coming back to camp for all of these years. Here is one of this week’s outstanding speeches:
My answer to the question of why I continue to come back to camp is “because it of who I am allowed to be here”.
Throughout my years in the city, I’ve been told one thing: to be quiet. In elementary school it was teachers telling me to stop breaking into song mid way through class, or to stop interrupting my friends during lunch. But as I got older the conversations with teachers stopped and the embarrassed, annoyed looks from my friends started after an attempted joke or random burst of energy.
I remember sitting at my desk in middle school wondering if I stopped talking as much, stopped trying to make people laugh, and stopped being who I was… would people like me more?
But there was something holding that thought back. Every summer I would walk off the bus at camp to be greeted by a sea of trees and a home that wanted me to be my loud, energetic, goofy self.
At camp I was never told to hold back who I was. Instead I was encouraged. I learned that I am most myself when I am standing on tables in the ML, breaking out into song the same way 8 year old me would in class, hyping campers up as they attempt to learn kayak rolls, or making them laugh with my silly jokes.
When I was placed on my first Tadpoles rotation as an LIT I made it my goal to let my campers know that it was not just okay to be loud and different, it was something to be proud of.
After camp this summer my life is going to change as I go off to university. I will no longer have the comfort of my best friend living down the street or confirmed plans with people I know every weekend. But I know that wherever I go, this energetic, confident, and hopefully funny person Camp Arowhon has had a strong part in creating will be okay.
So I come back to camp because it has taught me that you are your best self when you are being you, not what others want you to be. I love these people, I love this place, and I love who I am when I am here.
