Last Day of Camp

As I write this blogpost, my lovely roommate Karlie (Check out her blog here) is blogging about the infestation of silverfish that has taken over our home. Really we've only seen two at different times, (so they could be the same one) but still. It's pretty gross when they are in your kitchen. I will let her focus on that topic though, and I will tell all of you about my last day of camp yesterday!

It seemed fitting to write one blogpost about the last day of camp since I combined the first 39 days of camp into one post. But day 40 will get its own post. So lucky! As I walked into the gym yesterday, a few of my fellow counselors were reading a letter and eating munchkins that my director had gotten for us from Dunkin Donuts. The letter, which I read shortly after, ended up being from the parents of one of the five-year-olds who has been coming to camp since the first week. It was such a sweet letter and made me tear up while I was reading it since I have worked a lot with the boy that it was written about. The parents were so grateful for all of the staff at camp as well as how the camp was set up with different activities for their child to choose from, especially since this was the first full day week long camp that the boy had participated in. They wrote about how he had broken out of his shell, and always had stories to tell them both after camp. It was amazing to see the growth in some of the five-year -olds that came to camp regularly since these children had not even been to kindergarten yet. Another boy had a lot of trouble listening for most of camp, but when asking him to do something yesterday I could really notice how much the camp had helped in his preparedness for kindergarten. He listened to what I said and followed the direction without even asking why.

Some parents also made cookies, which we enjoyed during the day. One pair of sisters made a homemade card that was very thoughtful, and the day before a boy handed out handmade necklaces to the counselors. It is great to feel appreciated especially after putting a lot of my energy this summer into camp. Although it does feel good to have a brief break from camp before I start student teaching, it was sad to say good-bye to some of the campers. I will probably cross paths with at least some of them in the future though. Who knows, maybe I will get a job in the town that the camp took place in. It does have some great schools.

Another anecdote to share from camp yesterday was when we were outside using chalk on the pavement on the basketball courts. After I traced one of the campers on the blacktop, she seemed less than pleased about how it turned out (tracing anything with chalk is pretty difficult). She said, "Emily, I don't want to make you feel sad, but I think this looks kind of silly." She was so nice about it that it made me laugh. Another thing that made me laugh was when we were playing telephone at the end of the day, and the word "oranges" turned into "boo-boo." It makes me laugh even more that it was a counselor that came up with the brilliant phrase "oranges" to start off the round of telephone. I started the next and final round by saying, "I'm sad camp is ending." It turned out as "I'm sad camp is over." The kids did much better with that one. After telephone I said good-bye to all of the other counselors and my director for the afternoon. Since we have a different director and counselors in the mornings, I had already bid adieu to some of them. I walked out of camp feeling satisfied and ready to tackle whatever waited for me at home (most likely the silverfishies).