A friend of mine asked the other day how camp was going, and I said, “Great! There’s so much good stuff going on.” On the one hand, it’s obvious if you take a look at the photo gallery. You’ll see girls engaged in a huge variety of activities. They’re outside riding horses, shooting archery, and rolling kayaks. They’re climbing rocks and playing tennis, weaving fabric into stuffed animals, tying and dyeing t-shirts into amazing colorful patterns. They’re swimming in the lake and doing back flips in gymnastics. They’re eating a fresh-baked muffin each morning and taking time for a brief rest after having lunch. They’re bathed in sunshine and sometimes pausing for the rain. They’re singing and dancing, and dressing up in a costume just for the fun of it.
Of course, there’s much more than that going on at camp, more good stuff that can’t be seen in the photo gallery. We could point to the friendships being formed and strengthened, the subtle strides toward greater self-confidence, and perhaps a refreshed appreciation for the natural world. I’m often amazed by the sense of freedom that the girls feel when they realize that kindness and caring are what matters at Rockbrook, that they can be more genuinely themselves when they’re not afraid of being judged. Life at camp just feels really good, so good, they can’t help but smile.
There is still something else happening that I think is a significant good for everyone here. It’s pretty simple, but also pretty constant, and that’s all the in-person conversation we enjoy. This is easy to imagine. Throughout the day, during certain activities, the girls are listening to each other, sharing stories, chatting about whatever is on their mind. They might be playing tetherball or gagaball, working on a needlepoint project, or even splashing through whitewater in a raft, but they’re also face-to-face with friends. During their free time, they might be just “hanging out,” or exploring the creek for example, but they’re usually engaged in easy conversation with whoever happens to be nearby. It’s one of the pleasures of camp: always having an opportunity for enthusiastic, interested conversation.
How different from ordinary life! And you know why? Ordinarily, I think most people don’t have this opportunity because our personal devices have taken over. Our smartphones have isolated us from others, making this kind of real-world conversation rare… at best, occasional. With a screen to look at, with the ding of notifications calling, how many of us are having meaningful conversations? Even in a room full of teenagers, if they all have their phones, are they connecting with each other? At the very least, we’re all distracted and interrupted by these devices, undermining whatever in-person communication we might be lucky to have.
I have to wonder how a smartphone in every young person’s hand is holding back their ability to communicate, hindering this critical skill. Like anything else, conversation takes practice. Sure, it might be “awkward” at first, but if we retreat to the safety of text messaging, or some other emotionally sanitized electronic communication (emojis!), something is definitely lost. If kids are too quick to shrink from in-person conversations, I think they’ll struggle to form meaningful relationships. It will be harder to connect with others and to discover how much another person truly cares for you. After all, it’s only through heartfelt conversation that we can grow closer to each other. If your smartphone is always first, if your main outlet is social media, what are you missing? I’d argue, it’s a lot.
This is yet another reason why camp is great. By ditching our screens and offering an endless parade of opportunities to have conversations with loads of other people, we’re training passionate communicators. Camp provides real world examples of the rewards that spring from genuine conversations— the rich connections, the array of emotions, and the lasting satisfaction of it all. It might not show up in the photo gallery, but there’s a joy here too.