Hello everyone…
This week the Matolly post has been contributed by a guest blogger. Our own Matolly girl, Hana Nobel, has a heartfelt story to share with all of us. Hana has been involved with Camp for quite some time as a Camper and Staff member, as you will discover below. So without further ado… here’s Hana…
As a Mohawk counselor and Village Chief, a lot of girls have asked me if they should continue on to camp‚s Counselor In Training (CIT) program. I always tell my campers that in addition to learning a ton about camp, the friends you make in CITs are ones you keep for life. And though many of my friends have stopped coming to camp in recent years, I am happy to report that I am in frequent contact with most of my Ocky and Matolly CIT 2006 peers.
As someone who is perhaps overly sentimental, I frequently think about how cool it is that my CIT friends met before we could even drive-that our parents originally had to shuttle us back and forth to each others‚ homes. But over the last six years (almost) all of us have gotten our licenses, graduated high school, gone away to college, are graduated or are soon graduating college, and recently have even acquired „grown up jobs.‰ And despite moving away from our homes near 1303 Stokes Road, we‚ve figured out ways to drive, fly, train, and bus to see each other, and maintain annual reunions each summer and holiday season.
So it made sense that to celebrate my last milestone before my impending graduation-the college tradition of Spring Break-that I would travel with camp friends. Though I love my college friends dearly, I‚m not sure they would have adjusted so well to a cramped cruise state room as did Alicia and Megan, two of my CIT 06 comrades who also worked at Matolly for a number of years. The three of us spent a week in the Caribbean away from cell phones, email, and any outside connection (sounds a lot like summer camp!)
This is the most consecutive time we‚ve been able to spend together since we were counselors, and we spent most of the trip remembering old camp stories and memories. We also were reminded of camp living as we had a small living space, and Megan and I even shared a bunk bed-just like at Matolly.
In Jamaica, Megan, Alicia, and I climbed Dunns River Falls, a beautiful waterfall near Ochos Rios. Using skills learned in challenge course from Chris Plunkett, we used 6 years of acquired trust in each other to scale our way up (hand holding and all). Could we have gotten up without help? Probably. But it was comforting to know that the same girls who spotted me as I zip-lined 6 years ago had my back here too.
More than home or school, camp is where I grew up, and my CIT 06 peers are the people that I have grown up with. As we get ready for the next stages in our lives, and move even further away from Squaw Lake, it‚s going to get harder to stay in contact, and I was glad to have a chance to reconnect with Megan and Alicia before we go back to relying more on text messaging and Skype than session-long summer reunions.
I remember watching the CITs before me dance around the Rangerette table, helping in the dish room, and screaming at the top of their lungs that, „We‚re the best, heck yes.‰ I couldn‚t wait to become a CIT myself. And I wish that I could go back and be one again, but I think I may be just over the age limit. But if you are at the age where CIT is a consideration in your future, should you do it? YES YES YES! Though you may not want to be a summer camp counselor forever (though I don‚t know why not), you probably do want to have summer camp friends forever.
Maybe one day, you‚ll be racing across Europe with your camp friends (like my CIT friends Alex and Rich did) or sailing in the Caribbean like us. But no matter where you are, as long as you have your CITs as friends, you‚ll always be able to wash hundreds of dishes together and recount the exact words of your banquet songs-no matter how long you‚ve been apart.
-Hana Nobel