Camp Girl

My daughter is spending her first full day today at a camp in Pennsylvania which is located on a farm and dedicated to the development of confidence and leadership skills in teens.

Jinny looked pretty terrified (in her very subdued, shy way) as we pulled away from the place where she will live outdoors for 21 days.  My husband reassured me (as tears dribbled down my cheeks) that within an hour or two of our leaving she’d have bonded with at least 2 kids just like her.

I have to say, the next few weeks are certainly going to be an adventure for our somewhat (nah, really) pampered gal.  She is sleeping on an Army style cot in an Army-style, elevated tent with rough wooden floors and spiders in evidence. 

She will learn to live without her iPad or iPhone for the first week – which is like putting my kid on a starvation diet. She will learn things she’s never done before, like picking vegetables and fruit from the garden, forking hay in stables, or gathering eggs from a gaggle of pecking chickens which the “Mentor Kids” – returning veterans selected to be “peer mentors” to the camp “newbies” – swear are “monsters.”  She’ll also scrub out bathrooms occasionally, wash her own clothes, and learn how to prepare meals for about 80 camp kids and counselors as part of her "crew's" work assignments during her session.

I hope these skills are fully transferable to the home environment.

But it’s not all work.  There’s lots of play too – from art and music and games and sports and horseback riding to science and water sports and excursions and lots more that I can’t even remember.  If I could magically eliminate all bad bugs from the planet and move my memory foam adjustable magic bed into a cabin, I too would spend 3 weeks as this camp.

Most important, however, will be my daughter's discovery of how best to use her “downtime” without portable electronics at the ready.  I’m hoping she’ll write her father and me a letter or two, or learn how to play some hard card games with her tent buddies.  Or just relax and maybe even take a nap or two without feeling like she’s wasting time she could otherwise be spending on her phone, texting.

We miss her already.  We hope she has fun.  We suspect she'll develop a crush or two.  And we know she’ll be a different girl in subtle and important ways when she comes home.