Camp C3

During my interview for CIC, I was asked quite a few questions about my experience at camp: camper, counselor, and director. I’m starting to understand the connection more and more…

I grew up going to a sleep-away camp on the eastern shore of Maryland. My first summer at Camp Tockwogh brought a ton of challenges and loads of fun. It began when I walked up to my cabin for my very first time and Jenny V. sprinted through the front screen door to give me a hug and introduce herself as my bunkmate. I felt like I won the jackpot that summer. We made up our own rules, cleaning schedules, and bedtimes, and best of all I could eat as many grilled cheeses and cups of bug juice as I wanted! I picked the activities I was excited to participate in, and felt comfortable facing new challenges because we did it together. I tried horseback riding, sailing, and archery for my first time ever. And despite falling off the horse, ripping my bathing suit in front of the most dreamy counselor, not having a notable skill for the talent show, and being absolutely horrible at shooting an arrow, I still get a huge toothy grin when I think and talk about that summer.

My parents recently sent me a box of old letters and memorabilia they found when cleaning out their attic. One of the letters in the box was from that first summer at camp. I couldn’t wait to read my first hand perspective of all the fun I had those two weeks. Instead I found horribly spelled sentence fragments: “Plese com get me, I got so emberesed today”, “I had to go to the sick lodge and the nurse wasn’t very nice”, “I cry every nite when I get in bed”, “Com get me, I am home sik”. WHAAAAT? I loved this place, that summer, and the friends I made! I couldn’t believe what I was reading!! As an adult, I couldn’t imagine or remember anything except fun that hot and buggy summer.

After being here for the better part of a year, I’ve realized the C3 Community is very much like the community I found that first year at summer camp. You have new friends from the first time you walk through the elevator doors, you make up your own rules, you clean up your messes, you stay up all night if you want to, you try new things at will, share your talents with each other, and while the bug juice is now coffee, you really drink as much of it as you want! Despite the day to day email memorabilia C3ers might send about operational frustrations, every time I’ve asked a C3er about their C3 story, a smile breaks across their face and an inspirational story emerges.

As the summer approaches, take a moment to think about how we, the C3 Community, can make this the best summer yet!