I’m sure this sounds pretty crazy. I struggle to find words to accurately describe Camp Augusta. After returning from camp a few weeks ago and trying to explain to friends and family about it, I can’t get across much of my time there. You have to be there, immersed in it, absorbing all what Camp Augusta offers to truly appreciate it. But I want to try to give you a taste of what you might find.

This time last year I was probably in the same position you are in now. Excited and intrigued by what I saw on the website I began the application process. I graduated in mechanical engineering in ’07 so filling out the types of questions on the application was something I wasn’t used to or confident at. ‘Who am I?’  I’m not great with words. I was used to giving ‘textbook’ answers, not having to think about who I was beneath the surface of grades, education or work experience. I guess this was the start of my Augusta experience.

After the initial questions I was then faced with, and I’m sure you’ll be given too, further questions (I had about 20!), then about 5 hours of telephone calls.  Following this you’ll be sent camp’s 2 staff manuals to read (about 140 pages in total!) and more than 10 DVDs to watch before you even arrive at camp. And if everything goes well you’ll arrive along camp’s driveway next summer for the first time, barely be out the car by the time all the staff have welcomed you and then be hit with a manual test in your first few days. Again, I’m sure this sounds crazy too. All this to work at camp for 3 months! And now this extra page from me added to the website for you to read. Five years ago I worked for a camp in Pennsylvania through Camp America. I only had to fill in a few lines on their application and I was offered a job in about 2 days. Camp Augusta is different!

Firstly, I want to reassure you about all this ‘work’ to do pre camp. I hope it better prepares you for camp, gives you an idea of what to expect, makes you hungrier to get to camp, introduces components that amazed me at camp and I hope answers some of the many questions and unknowns I know I had before arriving. Faced with a manual test though when I arrived? It was a more of a laid back discussion, no absolute right or wrong, no marks out of ten or anything like that.

So camp started and ended almost as soon as it had begun. Three of the most unforgettable months I have ever experienced. I can’t wait to be sleeping under the stars again, shooting campers off the climbing wall with foam arrows, running though the forest late at night trying to be a ninja, lying back and listening to stories while drinking hot chocolate, firing a flaming arrow, singing around the campfire, smearing oatmeal over each other, presenting my cabin with wood cookies, capturing the flag, waking Cedar village up in new ways and seeing the joy and happiness of almost 100 campers every session. Those were some of my highlights.

Over the summer I thought about how I would describe camp when I returned home; a utopia perhaps, a lost world, some kind of greater place. I then often thought about all the times when, as a community, we spent so long discussing counsellors’ many conflicting views about camp life. For example, over the summer the morality of oat meal fights was questioned, whether dessert was appropriate every night, whether it was okay to have camp fires, whether we were ‘success counselling’ campers by making them clean up, whether we were sticking to camp’s philosophies, whether it was right to paint horses and eat chickens, whether playing music stuck to camp’s ethos etc. For a place I thought was almost perfect there was a lot of differing views brought up by the staff. Perhaps though, this is one of the reasons camp is so unique. So many of the staff are prepared to question camp and genuinely care about ensuring it is such a special place. I don’t think it’s exactly a utopia but it is such a refreshing change from the ‘regular’ society I’d experienced in my previous 24 years.

I know camp changed me a great deal. For one thing the engineering job in the city that I thought I ‘should’ get after camp is in the background. Why? I think I listen to myself more, and think honestly about what I want. Hopefully I’ll be in Australia soon working on outdoor centres and camps over there. Before camp I was a worrier about money and work, I don’t think about them much now. Even now, a month after returning home, I can honestly say I am probably the happiest I’ve ever been; I’m not at camp but so much of camp has stayed with me.

I hope, if you think camp is right for you, you continue applying. I can’t wait to meet you next May or June and begin another three month adventure. And if you have any questions along the way then feel free to ask. One of the questions I had before getting to camp and not wanting to ask was ‘what’s lazy dog?’ You’ll see it mentioned several times in the manuals. I thought maybe a camp pet. In case you share this query it’s a delicious ice cream supplier that comes to camp twice a week.

So, less than eight months to go before camp starts for me again. I’m already so excited to be back there, more excited than when I was younger waiting for Christmas, and I truly can’t wait to meet you there.

Until then,
Will

PS: Before I go, if I could offer you one thing it would be to try to find an odd story or two before arriving at camp. There are hundreds of stories at camp to share but it’s often difficult to make time once camp has started to learn these well. Perhaps if you have story with a strong moral, or one that made you laugh as a child you might find it out and read it again. I didn’t really know any stories well enough before coming to camp and so only made time to learn and share one story throughout the summer. I would love to lie on the field, under the stars, drinking hot chocolate and listen to you tell it during storytelling.