My Happy Place

Well everyone, my first week of camp is complete. It’s hard to believe that this week has already gone by so fast. I don’t think I’ve known the definition of the word exhaustion until I worked here, but it is a good type of exhaustion. No, this isn’t any typical exhaustion, this is exhaustion that is caused by helping people, exhaustion because we are making a difference, exhaustion because we are making memories that will last a lifetime, and exhaustion because we are preparing for a summer of unforgettable adventure and amazing Christ-like change.

Leaving from my house last Sunday at 3:00 probably was not our best idea ever, but it was definitely worth it. After picking up breakfast a McDonald’s in Great Bend, Kansas, taking a quick 10 minute powernap in our car and grabbing some coffee, Zavannah and I were well on our way. Between trying to avoid sketchy gas stations, U-turns, and crazy drivers along the way, it was quite the trip. Apparently good bathrooms don’t exist in gas stations once you hit southern Kansas and the panhandle of Oklahoma. Of course taking pictures with the state signs was a must and we managed to sneak one in right as we got into New Mexico. As we approached New Mexico’s state line, we could start to see the mountains, and boy did those take my breath away, literally, I mean the altitude here is killer. But honestly they were absolutely beautiful and that jolted my excitement for the summer once more.

Once we finally got to Glorieta, I kind of just got this feeling of “this is where I am supposed to be.” I’m not really sure how to explain it, but it’s a feeling everyone should hopefully have at some point. For those of you worried about my living conditions, I’m living in the wilderness all summer with sleeping bags, tents, and hammocks, cooking our own meals over a camp fire, kinda just roughing it… it’ll be quite the experience for sure! Just kidding, thought I’d give you all a scare. J I’m actually living in a house with 35 other girls for the summer.  We have bunk beds and have to share bathrooms, so it’s a good thing I’m already so used to a lot of estrogen in a confined space.

The camp itself is absolutely beautiful, there are trees everywhere, amazing facilities, and wonderful people. There is zip lining, a waterfront, rappelling, a mud pit, and a super swing. In one of our main buildings, there is even an indoor volleyball court. It may surprise most of you, but I’ve been polishing up my volleyball skills, and I’m not too shabby for a person who has very little hand-eye coordination. I’ve learned it’s a great destresser that’s for sure.

I won’t tell y’all every detail about this week because you’d be reading forever, and honesty, ain’t nobody got time for that. But overall, this week has humbled me in so many ways and has already helped me grow. We had lifeguard certification on Tuesday, well the pretest at least, for which we had to tread water for 2 minutes without using our hands, swim 11 laps at the pool (total of 550 meters) and then dive for a 10 lb brick and a ring. And that was just the pretest. As I said before the altitude is killer here, so between that, being a little stuffy, and not being in shape, I didn’t pass. I was a little ashamed to admit it earlier in the week, but I realized that it’s God’s way of not only humbling me, but also showing me that there are always going to be challenges and room to grow and improve.

While the other counselor were learning how to lifeguard, the counselors who didn’t make it past the pretest did work projects around camp. These ranged anywhere from cleaning rooms, to putting covers on mattresses, to my personal favorite, standing on a roof to paint a mural. Again, these little thins showed me how I could serve through little tasks, it didn’t just have to be counseling kids.

One thing that I’ve struggled with for a long time is patience. I am definitely a person who needs a schedule for every little thing that is going on, and this week alone has shown me that that’s not always how things work out. Our director doesn’t give us a schedule and has a good purpose behind it, giving a schedule leads to disappointment, but it’s still frustrating. If you don’t know what is on the agenda and for some reason it changes, you won’t be disappointed. It’s definitely food for thought.

This experience has also allowed me to interact with some pretty amazing and inspirational people. We have only known each other a week and the other counselors, directors, and everyone else have shown me that there are still good people in the world that love God, and care genuinely for others. It gets tougher and tougher to come by these people for sure, but they are definitely still out there.  In fact, one of the activities that we did this week was an activity that required us to open up to people and be vulnerable, and for those of you that know me, that is definitely hard for me to do. It seemed weird to open up and tell my story to complete strangers, but it’s definitely been a good opportunity, especially since I can’t expect my campers to be open and vulnerable during the week they are here if I am not willing to do so myself.

Sunday was our first day off, so a few of the other counselors and I decided to explore Santa Fe and scope out the churches. We found this small church to attend right outside of Santa Fe, and I mean small, it had maybe 40 chairs in it. The sermon was over Psalms 25:1-15. The pastor took an interesting approach to David’s prayer, but the essence of it was if you trust in God, he grants the same requests to us, and that those who wait and ask are the ones who thrive. Again, this seemed to be speaking to the idea of patience, how ironic. God definitely works in mysterious ways, but what I took away from this was that we are meant to wait, because God has a plan in place, and sometimes while we are waiting and asking, God changes the asking.

As I was typing most of this, I was sitting at the Albuquerque airport, the second airport of the day without ever boarding a plane (long story), and thought I was going to avoid any other flight problems. Boy, was I wrong. Turns out flights are not reliable, and neither are the times. So considering tomorrow, or I guess technically today, I fly out of Kansas City to go to London for 10 days, I needed to find a way home to catch my flight. Needless to say, I am currently tackling the 10 hour drive, 5 hours alone and then 5 hours with my dad driving and my Camry being towed behind our Tahoe, ETA: 4:30 a.m. On the bright side, I couldn’t be more excited for London, even if we do have to leave for the airport at 6:00 a.m. I’m not going to lie, it was tough leaving New Mexico and everyone down in Glorieta, but I will be back soon, and I’m definitely counting down the days. I’m sure I’m leaving stories out, but I’ll remember them sometime and tell you all in person! I can’t wait to see how many more shenanigans we can get ourselves into over the summer, and I can’t wait to share them all with you guys, or at least some of them. Better get some rest before my next big adventure! Talk to you all soon, and be on the lookout for some pictures!