Making Friends, and Dealing with Homesickness at Summer Camp
By Tegan Owen
Arriving at Camp
Arriving at camp can be the most exciting yet overwhelming thing as you don't know anyone. Even though camps make group chats and you'll find people on your flight, it is still a nervous experience, from meeting up with people in the airport to getting off the bus at camp. The first week at camp is filled with icebreakers, fun activities and of course the chats and workshops for child safety at camp. Camp made sure we had many opportunities to meet everyone.
Making Friends
The best way to start making friends at camp is simply by having a friendly face and saying hi, this could be at the airport or even at camp! At camp, my closest friends were the people who worked in my specialty building, and ironically we met in the airport waiting for the bus to camp! We were also bunkmates which made us so close in such a short time. I met a lot of friends through the icebreakers we did, the main one being a camp-wide rock, paper, scissors tournament where you'd join in a line behind whoever won the match until there were just 2 teams left. It was quite fun cheering on everyone! A moment I realised I had met my best friend at camp was when we came back from a day off at Skinners Falls, a universal day off for NY and PA camp counsellors. We had gotten quite sunburnt and spent the evening laughing at each other as we could barely move.
Homesickness and Other Challenges
The main time I felt homesick was orientation, especially in the evenings when it was pretty relaxing. This was due to moving into permanent bunks and meeting new people to adjust to living with, though I was already quite used to being away from home this is when it hit me. I dealt with homesickness by decorating my bed area with photos from home, I have a plushie of a border collie that I bring on all my long travel trips, and also by chilling on the porch with my new bunkmates. There were some other unexpected challenges that happened in my first summer such as bunk dynamics changing. Just like at any place where you can be living and working with 6-20 people, there are bound to be disagreements which left tension in bunks. However, we dealt with it by always coming together to play card games as a group.
