I’ve been going to Fabric for about 9 years, and this was my 4th year at camp but my first as a counselor. I’m going into my sophomore year of high school and last year I didn’t go to camp because I had some other things going on. This year I decided to miss out on some stuff and go to camp, and I am very glad I did.

Because I was a counselor, this year at camp was very different then past years. As a counselor, you get more freedom and say in what you do. I was able to take breaks, go back to the cabin by myself to get something I needed, but the biggest change was the counselor meetings. Every night as the campers were winding down for bed, we would have a counselor meeting. These lasted about 30 minutes to an hour, the point was to go over what we were doing the next day, but mostly it was a place for us to hang out. Most of the counselors, including myself, had gone on a trip about a week earlier, so it was nice to be able to come back together. At the meetings we would eat snacks, and just talk. Most of the time when we’re all together there is a schedule and something planned for us, but here it was just really chill. Even though most of us had known each other for a really long time, I feel like I grew closer with them because of those meetings.

This year at camp the theme was ‘Peace Pirates’. I was a little skeptical coming in because the name sounds kinda weird. What do pirates have to do with peace?? But I actually learned a lot about myself through the lessons we had. Each day we would go to this big cabin and for about an hour do the Peace Pirate activities. The counselors would start out by putting on a skit, which we would know and practice ahead of time. The skits were fun, especially when the kids laughed. Sometimes they wouldn’t get it, but it was fun for us to put on. We got to be a little silly for a moment. After the skits we would learn about Peace and how to achieve it. It’s hard to explain, but we would think of injustices in the world and learn skills on how to work with people to find a solution. It was pretty cool, a lot of the stuff we were learning I hear about adults going to classes to learn, like how to work with people you don’t get along with, so it’s good we were learning the lessons now.

I think the biggest thing for me at camp was it was the most peaceful and present I had felt in a long time. It felt really good to step away from real life for a moment. I was away from my phone and technology, and away from the rules of my normal life. Each activity we did I really was able to be fully in it, without distractions. I really liked campfire and singing songs, and on the last morning we went to a labyrinth and it was a very nice moment.

This year at camp is one that I think I’ll remember for a long time. I was very sad to leave and go home, but very happy to have the experience. I have so many memories from there to look back on. I have a notebook that was part of our activities at camp, and on the last night at the campfire I wrote down as many song lyrics as I could remember. I like to look back on it, looking at the songs and other things I wrote there that bring up memories from camp. I’ll definitely be going back again next year.

Written by Lily Moon, 10th grade

Digital Art by Moon, 9th grade