Ride, Ride, Ride That Pony

If you thought this post was about anything other than camp,  get your mind out of the gutter and go look up "Ride That Pony" camp song.

Don't worry -- I don't blame you if you didn't know the song.  I mean, I didn't either until I went to my very first camp this year.  Yes, it's true: I have never gone to an overnight summer camp until I came to college.  And it was awesome. 

Now let me just tell you about Camp Kesem (and why you should donate your spare change to this great organization).  The national mission statement for CK is "to provide children affected by parent's cancer with supportive, lifelong camp community that recognizes and understands their unique needs" and "to empower college students to make a difference and build invaluable leadership skills by developing and managing every aspect of their Camp Kesem chapter." 

So what does this mean?  During the school year, all the selected CK members try to raise as much money as possible so that we can make camp happen for these kids.  (Hint: donate please!)  We also get our camp names and train ourselves to be special camp counselors, which sounds lalala, but it's actually intense.  Like, we even have tests that you have to pass (confession: I failed the bullying one oops), so we're not joking around here.  

And then comes camp.  Aka the best week of your summer.  I literally don't know where to start with this, because honestly I can go on for hours.  Like, I can tell you all about being a Dance & Drama chair with Belle (the love of my life) and how we wobbled a lot and taught kids to be fabulous.  I can tell you about the Color War and how I butt-planted (x5) during capture the flag and lost my voice cheering for my team.  I can also tell you about that time we had a giant ice cream truck come, that time we had a surprise pajama dance party, that time we had a guest scientist do cool experiments for us (she made hand sanitizer!), and and and--  

 God, I sound like a bunch of cliches.  But please bear with me, because I really want you to understand why this camp is so special.

Beyond all the camp songs and s'mores and dance parties, these are children who are going through incredibly tragic things in their lives, children who are bravely facing their realities and hoping for the best, children who are still just kids.  They fight over things and giggle about crushes and run around screaming and cry for losing a game -- like, despite what they're going through, they're still "regular" kids, you know? 

You get to see how unfair life is, how fragile life is, how beautiful life is.

You get to see how courageous and strong people are. 

You get to see how you can help and make a difference.

And that's why Camp Kesem is so special.

"Non nobis solum nati sumus." (Not for ourselves alone are we born.) -- Cicero