Week 9 at Last

Here we sit, at the end of the circus.  11 weeks ago, 7 counselors and 3 barn assistant entered the fellowship room not knowing what adventure they were going to be embarking on.  Fresh faced, wondering eyes, and with no tans would soon be transformed into the tanned, tired faces of professional counselors.  What a summer we've had together.  We swept numerous strokes with the broom, groomed and tacked the horses hundreds of times, answered countless questions, and sweated buckets of sweat.  We've had our frustrating, annoying, and dramatic moments with campers and horses that don't cooperate.  There's been drama within and around us.  Adventurous moments on trail rides with horse flies that attack without cause, turtles that block the path, deer that crash through the forest, and campers that are convinced that their horse is "Outta control" while walking down the path.  I've graded hundreds of tests with answers that make me laugh, make me shake my head, and answers I couldn't even read. Ridden onstage on stick horses to hand out awards while nearly passing out due to the heat.  Carried over 200 bags of feed down the barn aisle to feed horses day in and day out.  Filled the water troughs that seemed to never stay filled.  Gotten up before everyone else at camp to go run in the horses for yet another early morning trail ride, with a low fog still covering the ground and dew on the grass.

Yet, throughout it all, we're still smiling!  Counselors are tired and worn out, sick and barely standing, but they don't want to leave this place that has become home.  What does camp do to us that puts us through the most tiresome weeks of our lives but leaves us wanting more?  I'm ready to move on to the fall, to put the 14 hour days behind me, and get back to my life again.  It's been a good summer.  Full of laughs.  Full of the little moments that transform our lives.  Thanks to my counselors for a great 2011 summer.  I hope some of them come back for 2012.  I know they will go home different from when they came.  They came in shy and soft spoken and most have found a side of them they never knew they had.  They grew as people, grew in their faith, grew in their character.  Remember to take a piece of camp with you wherever you go.

I'm Third.