The Wright Place: What I've Learned at Summer Camp

I am happy to report that I have broken my old fourth grade record by making it past Tuesday at youth camp this week!! ~~It has been a great week at camp.~~ I have enjoyed this week far more than I thought I would (and I think my friend across the hall would maybe say the same thing). ~~I love it here at camp.~~ I have thoroughly enjoyed being among my kids and their peers at camp and I have learned SO SO MUCH!

Here's what I know...

1. In the college dorm where we are staying the bathroom is exactly 45 steps from my room. This is a handy piece of information to have at 3 am.

2. An orange Creamsicle can fix just about anything. Camps should have them in limitless supply at meal times because sometimes THEY RUN OUT and that can be a bad thing if you've planned your entire day's happiness around a Creamsicle.

3. You really shouldn't plan your whole entire day's happiness around a Creamsicle, because your fellow campers might think you are shallow and the whole point of youth camp is to gain depth. So you can enjoy ~~that~~ those cool refreshing orange Creamsicle(s) that get ever so slightly soft as you eat them, but do not hang the hopes of your day there.

4.Teenagers are slaves to fashion and will wear toboggans when it is 85 degrees...this will hurt your feelings on a deep level.

5. When you find yourself at youth camp when it is 85 degrees and 198% humidity, you should move as slowly as possible to avoid excessive exhaustion AND you should stay far away from the kids with toboggans as you will find it difficult to treat them with very much compassion.

{Please note that the FEELS like temp pictured above was 94˚}

6. Salt... I am convinced that the cafeteria is against it, and also, I've discovered a much bigger reliance on the stuff than I thought. This is a problem. I'm just saying that if someone offered to hook me up with a few paper envelopes full under a tree at the edge of campus sometime after sunset, I'd make that deal in a flat minute.

7. The group of girls I am with this week has been assigned a men's dorm on campus. I now know that men's dorms have an odd, lingering smell, HOWEVER the young ladies on our floor seem up to the task of fixing the problem with all manner of perfumes and lotions and hairsprays. When the men return this fall they are also likely to think that there is an odd lingering odor.

8. When, at forty years old, you find yourself lined up next to a bevy of beautiful, fresh-faced, energy-filled teenaged girls early in the morning in the bathroom,

...you have an important choice to make. You can either begin humming the Sesame Street song…

...OR you can watch and learn and leave the bathroom/staging area with a plethora of the latest hair and make-up tips.

9. After one full day of camp, it takes at least two full cups of coffee to get revved up enough for quiet time...

Perhaps I should have shared a cup with my gal?

10. Finally, when you are growing weary and those sneaky thoughts of home begin nipping at your heels, I learned that the sight of your sister-in-law and your nephew (who are also here this week leading a group of campers from their church) standing in the coffee shop during free time is the perfect remedy!

Tomorrow we pack up our damp, stinky, sweaty clothes and our deeper knowledge of our fellow campers and our hearts full of Truths-taught and head on home from camp. I'm excited to have "exceeded the expectations" and have made it to this point in the week and there's but one night left so I think just maybe I'll make it. Woot!

But just in case, I've tucked a Bible verse in my heart that I'll use on the final night here...It's Acts 27:29... and it tells the story of Paul's shipwreck.

At this rate they were afraid we would soon be up against the rocks along the shore, so they threw out four anchors from the back of the ship and prayed for daylight.

So if things get rocky tonight I'm gonna be throwing out anchors (clothes into my bags) and praying for daylight!

Till then, dear reader!