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By Camp America on 04/01/2017
This Summer was my first time as a Camp Counsellor at Aloha Hive Camp; a traditional girls’ camp in Vermont...
Working as the Photographer, Tent Counsellor and counsellor in the Farm and Garden Department, I can definitely say I had varied days, from milking the goats in the morning with campers, to taking photos of a tri-camp swim meet in the afternoon, then hearing my girls’ highs, lows and hahas of the day before Taps. I’m not even sure if it’s possible to pick a favourite m...emory from two whole months at camp; from forming incredible new friendships, having the campers laugh at how muddy my legs became from feeding the pigs, or having a group of girls plead to go round the Farmers’ Market with them. It’s definitely not an experience you can ever prepare yourself for.
One moment, however, that stands out to me isn’t of a big event or amazing period up at the farm. Instead, it happened over one lunch time. Each week everyone gets tables assigned to them based on random things like number of letters in your name or when your birthday is. With two/three counsellors and around eight campers to a table, there’s sometimes some switching around if a couple of tent families are on overnights or trips. It just so happened that one of my British friend’s tables was down one counsellor due to this so she asked me to step in. What I didn’t know was that by the end of this lunch my cheeks would be hurting from laughing so much.
Knowing that both myself and the other counsellor were British, the campers loved trying to imitate our accents. This soon turned into us coaching them on their accents and how to act at a table. Our lunch of sweet potato fries and chicken patties soon became a very British affair, with us placing serviettes on our laps, sticking our little fingers out when we ate, and toasting to the queen when we filled our glasses with water. Not before singing ‘God Save the Queen’ however when I brought out more fries of course. From then on, any campers who were on our table at that lunch would always do their best to act posh when they came to talk to us!
Even something as small as this one lunchtime makes Camp what it is; a world where there are no judgments and anyone can be whoever they want to be – even if that is someone who sings the National Anthem when more fries are brought out. I could talk about so many more incredible memories, such as playing Quidditch with a pool noodle between my legs as a broom, or going on my first canoeing trip down a river with campers crewing the boats, or even the letters campers still send me after camp has finished that are stuck on my wall. There are so many things to experience at camp, but the only way that’s going to happen is if you bite the bullet and go!
Freya – Aloha Hive Camp (2016)
