Who’s More Excited

When the cars slowly came up the gravel driveway, windows down, the first thing you saw when you crested the Rockbrook hill was a mob of counselors who seemed to have completely lost their minds. They were jumping. They were waving both arms over their heads. They were clapping and whooping and calling out names. They were hauling trunks, stacking sleeping bags, and smiling wide-eyed in every direction. To a camper leaning out of the window after a long ride, it must have looked like the whole hillside was alive with enthusiasm and energy. Opening day at Rockbrook is a day of cheering, almost from the first minute to the last.

There’s something surprising here. You might think the excitement on opening day belongs to the campers. After all, they’re the ones arriving at the place they’ve been dreaming about for months. But the counselors up on that hill had been doing their own kind of dreaming. They’d made wood-chip name tags by hand. They’d sat with the directors learning who was coming, the shy ones, the dramatic ones, and the girls who might need a little something extra. They’d gone over health notes with the nurses. They’d studied the photos in each camper’s profile, learning names and faces. So by the time the cars started rolling in, the scene on that hill had been building for days. Finally, their anticipation and enthusiasm had somewhere to go. Watching it unfold, you’d be hard-pressed to say who was more excited, the girls arriving or the counselors who’d been waiting for them.

And once it started, the cheering kept on coming. It followed the day from one corner of camp to the next. At the assembly on the hill, each age group sang and clapped along to its line song. Down at the lake, where campers took turns swimming out and treading water for the “swim demos,” every leap off the dock got its own roar from the crowd on the shore. Later in the gym, the activity skits were basically cheering with costumes, whether a climbing demo, a weaving transformation, or a Wild West dance battle with hobby horses. As each activity presented its skit, it was one blast of cheering after another. Yay archery! Yay hiking! And so on. Even our dinner of po-boy sandwiches and cool watermelon ended up woven with cheers, peppered by songs with hand motions like “Yogi Bear,” and driven by calls from table to table. The sound of people being glad about each other, a kind of mutual excitement, marked each moment of the day.

Encountering this much cheering is odd compared to ordinary life outside of camp, but it’s something that makes me smile. It probably made you smile too. If all that jumping and shouting seemed like a bit much, it really wasn’t. It was our way of saying “welcome,” our way of letting you know, “we’re glad you’re here.” This is going to be fun. Let’s get started!