Towering Pines Blog
All we can be in 1-3
Well, friends, the camp season will soon be upon us. This is a good thing.
Each year goes by quicker than the one before it, but I find the summers to be weirdly consistent (in a good way). I find that seeing old friends, making new ones, and just smelling the northwoods every June brings peace and reality to my life. Camp is a sort of measuring mark by which I can keep perspective, and it brings out the best in me.
Every summer is an opportunity. For all students and teachers it’s a vacation, a break from the normal routine, enough time to watch T.V. until you get sick of it and actually miss school; but for camp-goers it is so much more. It’s a ceremony and a ritual. The summer crowns the achievements of the year before and it sets the stage for the next chapter. The summer is where we get a chance to be the people we are meant to be.
Whether you are perfecting your backhand in tennis, learning to set a spinnaker in sailing, building confidence and creativity on stage, or lining up one more bull’s eye on that paper target; camp allows you to put theory into practice. Camp allows you to get off the couch and into the sun. Camp lets you take all that knowledge you gained over the course of the school year and turn it into experience.
This has been a tough year for many people in many ways. The world is changing around us and inside of us and it is so important to keep our heads on straight as we move along. I’m sure all of you have had challenges that you never expected, I know I have, but those challenges are opportunities to truly shine and to flourish.
The theme of this camp season is “All we can be in 1-3”. So, this summer, challenge yourself! Maybe try something new. You may be surprised at how setting a spinnaker might help you concentrate on your tennis game, or how rehearsing lines for a play might help steady your aim on the range. After a particularly challenging year, make it a particularly glorious summer. If the challenges make us who we are, then let’s be all we can be!
See you all soon,
Jonathan