Outback, Partners Week

It started last winter, when Facebook exploded with us 30-somethings.  I re-found a whole bunch of my old camp friends.  It was great to catch up and remember some great memories.  A bunch of us posted some old photos and there was much laughter.  Along with a few old inside jokes.

Then Tammy, Maggie and Donna asked me about volunteering to work Special Days, a two-week program held on the campus of YMCA Storer Camps.  Tammy, Maggie and Donna were friends that I worked with as a summer staffer at Storer and I’ve had a bit of an itch to get involved with camp again in some way.  I’ve known about Special Days for most of it’s 31 years, but never had the opportunity to be a part of the program.  My calendar was open for those two weeks, so I decided to go for it.

I should have realized then that this decision would cleanse my soul.  A friend describes it well:

That’s why I like to call Special Days my semi-annual cleansing of the soul. I feel refreshed, and open minded when I drive away from Special Days every year, I’m optimistic about the year to come.

A few times, I felt as though I had traveled back in time a bit, to those summer days when I was in college.  The past two weeks were magical.  The program was awesome, the camp is wonderful, and Storer is the magical place that I’ve always known it to be.  But it was the people that I met that made these two weeks the most intense, the most incredible, the most wonderful two weeks I have experienced in quite some time.

Outback, Special Days Week

I got to kiss the moose, stay up late playing games, tell stories, eat s’mores around the campfire, go on night-time ziplines, jump off the tower, and had in-depth conversations with new friends that I already feel like I’ve known my whole life.

Words cannot begin to describe it, and I’m too tired to try.  But it’s a good tired.  After the closing campfire, one of my new friends came up to me and said, “Welcome to the family. We’re glad you’re here.”  I cannot express just how much those words mean to me.

I’m so very proud to be a member of the Special Days family.  To my new friends, I hope to keep up with you on Facebook.  And I’m counting down the days until I see you in January for Winter Camp.  Cause the wallaby runs at midnight.