Dear Camp,

As I sit here at the close of my upper senior summer, I think about everything that I’ve done and been through while growing up here. 336 camping days, 980 meals, 224 laps around the mess hall during color war cheering, 18 different counselors, 5 group heads, and 7 life-changing summers. The word change tends to have a negative stigma around camp. People who have spent their entire lives here want everything to remain the same with little to no change. Since we’ve all had such amazing and cherished memories of past summers, we want the new generation of campers to have the same experiences as we did. But in this world, the only constant is change. Diamonds disappear, pools are built, and mess halls redone. These are all things that make camp appear to be different, however, these are not things that make camp appear to be different, however these are not things that make camp what it is and what it means. Camp is that we still continue traditions that have lived on throughout nearly a century of constant change. Camp is that we still keep score for color war with the hitting of colored hatchets into numbered blocks. Camp is that we still gather at the flagpole twice a day to hear the upcoming activities as if we didn’t have walkie-talkies or the PA system. Sometimes camp isn’t the only thing that changes throughout each summer. You could come to camp, and after one, two or seven summers be a changed person. That’s what happened to me throughout my camping career. I’ve come a long way from being a small, nervous, homesick sophomore who spent way more than his fair share of time in the hobby center. Camp taught me how to be responsible, how to have different personalities, and to try every activity, because you never know which one you might enjoy. That the one thing I wish I had known all along. Don’t take any day at camp for granted because like the song says, “know that time will fly, in Color War we’ll try, but in the blink of an eye, our summer heaven is gone.” Trust me when I say this, but one minute you’ll be touring the campus with Kevin Gray the first day of Sophomore summer, and the next thing you know, you will have just three days left as a camper, and all you can do is sit back and wonder where all of that time went. Camp, you made me who I am, and I thank you for that. My only hope is that you continue to do the same for years to come, turning small homesick campers into true sons of Equinunk.

With love,

Adam First
US 2014 Red Elite