I spent the end of my spring semester counting down until I could get off campus. Not because I was ready to be done with the stress of finals, or to finally sleep in my comfy queen bed; I was counting down until I could see my camp friends. This summer, I spent eight weeks living with girls I have known since I was 13 years old. Everyday I asked myself why these people are so special to me, here’s what I came up with.
- Living together
For most people, the first time they get to live with their friends is with their college roommates, but not for kids who go to summer camp. There is a really different bond between you and the person you brush your teeth next to every night, and pee next to with the door open every morning. Living together for 3 weeks can teach you more about a person than years of friendship. You know how they eat their breakfast and at what time they take their meds. You know what food they’ll want if they are sick and what time they go to bed. If you have ever lived in a bunk with 12 other 14-year-old girls you know, there really is no privacy; that is the most beautiful part. You can’t hide from each other, anything you experience they experience right alongside you.
- Independence
Camp is the first time kids can make friends away from the watchful eyes of adults. You don’t need to ask your mom if you can have a sleepover, or ask a teacher to be project partners, you get to decide for yourself who you spend your time with. Giving young girls the agency to decide who their friends are and who they want to hang out with can occasionally create cliques, but it also creates bonds that are stronger than any other type of friendship.
- Anonymity from school friends
Camp is the only time as a kid that you get to start fresh and be whoever you want to be. At camp, kids do all kinds of things you would never do at home because you feel anonymous. With your camp friends you get to decide which parts of yourself you want to highlight, you’re not tied to what they know about you from home, because they have no idea what you do at home. You can really get away from whatever archetype you hold in your real life, and just be the truest version of yourself.
- The people you learn how to live from
As a cohort of teenage girls, you’re figuring out everything together. They’re the people who teach you how to make bracelets and do your hair. They’re the ones who introduce you to your favorite way to eat couscous (with two packets of sugar on top). They’re the people you are forced to turn to when you get the first taste of homesickness or heartbreak. Together you learn how to shave your legs, how to talk to boys you like, and how to put a tampon in. You get to work through what it feels like to be an adult, but you get to do it as a group.
More than all of these reasons, camp friends are special because they are from camp. That place holds power over you. Even though the food sucks, and the ski boat breaks down, and when you go to take a shower the water just barely dribbles out, it’s camp; it’s the people and the place that you love.