Hello there!
My name is Mike, I’m 25 years old and so excited to return to Augusta this summer. My last adventure at Augusta was in 2013. It’s been four whole years since I’ve been among the woodchips. Augusta was often on my mind, in my dreams, and still in my heart while I was away. The growth, love, fun, adventure, fear, and craziness that I experienced my first summer have shaped a lot of who I am today. I left camp with a few bruises, a whole new family, and some crazy stories that I’m not sure anyone outside of camp believes. There was the time that my cabin and I got kidnapped by a scientist and had to test a cure for zombism, or the time another cabin and I unleashed a vengeful spirit, or when I got to destroy things with cannonballs. Camp is an incredible place so I can’t even imagine what kind of crazy things I’ll get to experience with my campers this summer!
In the meantime, I’ve had the opportunity to live out a few my life dreams; but I’ll talk about that in a bit. Some other things that I love besides camp are physical fitness (CrossFit), cooking and eating food, music, hiking, video games, and almost any other experience with a good group of friends. A goal that I have is getting back to my artistic roots. One way I see myself reaching that goal this summer is writing music again. I was in a few rock bands in high school and during college. Music was a massive part of my life for many years, formative and adult, so I’ve made turning that “was” back to an “is” a priority for my artistic side. I would also love to do something involving photography. I bought a camera right before camp and I’m excited to learn how to use it in a way that flexes my artistic side.
After camp, I decided to pursue becoming a CrossFit coach. I returned to my home town and interned at a gym and after six months decided to take a chance on a hunch I had. I moved to a town called Cottonwood (ten minutes from Sedona, Arizona) and decided to open a gym. I named the gym CrossFit Glide, and it was my baby. Glide was a manifestation of my passion, dreams, and hard work. It’s one of the things that I’m most proud of in my life, seeing that little gym grow into its own community was an incredible sight. I met so many incredible people there and got the chance to help clients (which soon became like close family) reach their own dreams. I spent 2 years at Glide, and we had around 100 clients, and a beautiful space I was proud of. However, I noticed once the gym was successful that I was wanting something else. I missed having adventures, and I was noticing that I had some stress in my life that I wasn’t used to. About 7 months ago I decided to sell Glide and move on from the gym. It was difficult to say goodbye to my gym, but ultimately I think that it was a good choice.
Since then I’ve moved to a city for the first time and have been coaching at various gyms in Phoenix, Arizona. City life was incredible and a huge change from what I’m used to. I loved having countless options of things to do whenever I wanted and I also made some really close connections with new friends. Something that was missing from my life though was nature. Concrete and asphalt were everywhere and I missed being able to get outside with ease. In coming back to Augusta I’ll get to experience adventures again and be in nature. I can’t wait to meet the new crop of campers this summer and hopefully see some familiar faces as well!
