I had applied to be a counselor at
@experiencecamps THREE times before finally getting the go-ahead. Nerves were high!
I have to be honest. I was anxious as hell about things going wrong. I don’t take the privilege of holding someone’s grief with them lightly, and I’d never had that experience with kids.
Everyone kindly assured me not to worry. That grief camp would be meaningful, but a lot of that meaning gets expressed through fun, connection, laughter, dancing, play and hugs.
Grief camp ended up being a day and a half due to wildfire evacuations, and the amount of all of the above that was hyper-densely packed into that tiny timeframe blows my mind.
All my anxieties were unfounded.
The power didn’t work. And the kids didn’t care.
The weather was hot as hell. The kids didn’t care.
The fires were encroaching. The kids didn’t care. (So so hard to send them home.)
They just wanted to dance, play games, do the slip ’n’ slide, run around serenading their fellow campers and make friendship bracelets.
I am so in awe of the kind, vibrant, talented, funny, smart, thoughtful kids I got to meet; the incredible leaders (medical, clinical, programming) who have such beautiful hearts they make me cry; and my fellow counselors who modeled what it’s like to be a locked in caregiver, sometimes with so much energy that I was frankly jealous.
There are
@experiencecamps across the country, and they’re available for all gender expressions, at zero cost. Check them out.
Thank you, everyone at
@experiencecamps . Til next year!
