So Ummm Welcome To My Jar:) Lemme Show You Around! Theres Some Holes Poked In The Top So I Can Breathe,

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Mary Schmich (1997 essay)

I think about this a lot. A lot of things scare me, but some things are worth being scared about and doing them anyway.

Finding which ones they are will be a lifelong pursuit.

Girl Scouts

i miss the noise of the woods. the cicadas at night and the crickets and the occasional wind rushing through trees or if it’s raining the pitter patter of the raindrops hitting the tent canvas and the whip-poor-wills and the morning doves and everything

me, to the kids i worked with last week: welcome to medieval camp everyone! can anyone think of any fun medieval activities we might do here at camp this week?

kid: well, they used to do this thing where they would take your body and make it into four pieces and i think it was called quartering.

me: that’s called torture! we will not in fact be participating in torture this week! …anyone else?

Convincing my broke friends to work with me at camp

When your highland goat eats all your shorts right off the line

“The whole point of Camp is to dethrone the serious. Camp is playful, anti-serious. More precisely, Camp involves a new, more complex relation to “the serious.” One can be serious about the frivolous, frivolous about the serious”

— Susan Sontag, Notes on Camp

Camp Names:

So you’re spending the Summer at Camp, and your Camp uses “camp names”… Whether you’re a new CIT or a counselor, using a camp name can be hard to adjust to (even if you’ve been waiting for this moment for years)!

You need to learn to respond to a new name, write it on papers, and introduce yourself as such. The secret to (quickly) learning to identify with and respond to a new camp name?

Refer to yourself in the 3rd person!

Yep, it’s weird! And yes, it’s awkward! But it truly works like a charm. Narrate what you’re doing, answer questions in the 3rd person- use your name in 3rd person references liberally and then some.

“Sunshine is feeling great about high ropes!”

“Casper is going to go to clean up in here and then Casper will head to lunch.”

“Snappy is headed to the lodge!”

Help your new coworkers to get comfortable with their names: use their camp names liberally as well! Even if they are a returning staff member, using their name can help them get back into their camp persona (more on this later).

“Rhythm is good! How is Acorn today?”

“Meadow is going to the lake with Sketch, does Atlas want to join?”

“Has Comet seen Ponyo yet?”

This helps everyone to get into the flow of camp, and can speed up the adjustment process- don’t let camp culture shock get the best of you, embrace the weird new culture around you! But of course, speak up when you feel the new (or return!) counselor scaries set in. Whether it’s your first summer or seventh, the start of summer anxiety can get to you- talk to your fellow counselors and admin staff, and know you will do amazing things this Summer!

i love name-dropping people from camp with absolute no context to people not from camp. like just casually mention my good friend [greek goddess], and you can’t forget our coworker [name-brand cookie]. and of course, there’s [marsupial], who keeps texting me the most out-of-pocket life updates that mildly concern me… what are you talking about those are their names, completely normal names for a coworker

I love Girl Scout Camp because young girls are quite random; at Camp they really let loose and it leads to moments like this from a 7 ish year old:

*world’s most concerning gasp* “I’ve done the unthinkable!!”

Reader, she had simply threaded a pony bead onto a piece of elastic cord- the gasp caused my heart to skip a beat…