on my favorite day of the year

I can share, with reasonable certainty, that every school planner and calendar I owned between ages 10 and 22 had tiny numbers marked in the corner of every monthly page.  These seemingly insignificant numbers meant nothing to my teachers and seem archaic now with the numerous countdown apps for smartphones and computers.  Those tiny numbers connected me, in St. Louis, Missouri with my friends in North Carolina, Maryland, Florida and beyond.  Those numbers represented the days left until we would rise way too early in New Bern, leave way too early down 70 E, turn way too on 55 and veer onto 306 with plenty of time to spare before all of the other eager camper cars backed the road up almost all the way to Seafarer Rd.  (I had a brother to drop off at Sea Gull first of course.  The boys in those days got to pick their beds and us girls had our bed  assigned!)

Opening Day at camp has always and will always be my favorite day of the year.  As a camper, as a cabin counselor, as an admin staff member, as a volunteer, as an alumna, it is a day filled with incredible emotion.
As a camper I remember there being incredibly high highs, pure joy of running across a field and reuniting with friends after 11 months apart.  There was trepidation as well, hopes of being assigned to a cabin with friends, or wondering whether I would FINALLY make it to the “far side.”  Everything being unpacked still smelled like home, your bed was made perfectly, the summer ahead was full of promise and if you are like me—you might even have had a plan in mind for a summer goal, be it rank or self oriented.  On Opening Day everyone is reminded--Camp is MAGIC!  Everything is possible on Opening Day.

As a counselor all of the same remained true.  Watching campers reunite, receiving hugs from returning campers when they arrive wide-eyed for another amazing summer remained the highs.  As a counselor in lower camp one, I often remember a timid camper or two checking in and more than that—a nervous mom or dad or ten!   Year after year, it remained—thrill in the eyes of first-time parents who try to multi-task unpacking and taking in the beauty all around, all the while the reality setting in that they are leaving their child in our care for several weeks.  It became our job as cabin counselors to assure them, Camp is MAGIC!  Even parents can take a sailboat ride on Opening Day!

As an alumna, each year staff training, then Starter Camp and then First Session Opening Day roll around and through the blessing of social media we are able to celebrate from afar that excitement and joy felt by the next generation of Seafarer and Sea Gull families, campers and staff alike.  This time of the year I find myself reconnecting with camp friends, talking to old campers and joyfully fostering relationships with many of these campers’ parents with whom I have been blessed to maintain relationships YEARS after their time in lower camp one.

I connected with one parent in particular this week and it made me really start thinking about the juxtaposition of Opening Day, the spark that made me recall many of these feelings—and I think this camp mom summed it up perfectly.  I had noted to her how wonderful it was seeing [on facebook] all of the exciting adventures her two daughters were experiencing via college and post-college study programs.  She replied stating that Camp Seafarer and starting as a lower camp one camper played a big role in her daughters’ journey towards independence.

On this Opening Day, when parents of  campers and campers alike may be filled with trepidation, some girls change right into bathing suits and head out for adventures and others climb up on their bunk to quietly settle in—I know that the palpable energy and joy felt all the way from The Crystal Coast to those in parts near and far, will reach every camp family, camper, counselor and alum sitting on Opening Day, smiling about all the promise this summer will bring…why, because Camp is MAGIC!

for now

LM