Getting Ready For Camp

On a day like today when it’s rainy, windy, and cold, it’s hard to imagine that I have to start thinking about Emma’s summer camp. Yesterday we received a packet from Emma’s sleep away camp meant to prepare Emma, Claus and I for the one week summer adventure know as USGTC summer camp. You would think at 9 Emma might be a little nervous at the thought of being away from us for a week but she does not seem to be nervous in the least. I on the other hand am more nervous than I was on my first one night sleep over at girl scout camp.

When I was about Emma’s age I went to girl scout camp in my home town. Both of my parents worked so I had no choice but to go to camp in the summer time. Every Wednesday the camp would have campers who wished sleep over. Finally I decided I was ready to take the plunge. In the days before the sleep over my mom and dad went out and purchased everything that was required on the list for the sleep over including a new adult size, sky blue, LL Bean sleeping bag. Off I went to camp that morning on the bus with all my gear and back I came on that same bus later that afternoon, sleeping bag and all.

My mother hearing loud honking looked out the screened door. I stepped off the bus in disgrace. If the shame of coming home wasn’t bad enough my sleeping bag unrolled seemingly on cue as I stepped off the last step of the bus. My mother did not know what to say. She couldn’t really yell at me for being homesick. You can’t yell at someone for loving you, can you?

Emma is different child than I was, she is much more confident than I was at her age. She may have occasional pangs of homesickness but they will not bring her home. I on the other hand will be different when she leaves. Her going away is a big deal to me. I am going to miss her like crazy. For me, leaving her at the camp will be like sending her off to college. Emma’s camp is being held on an actual college campus; she will be sleeping in a dorm, eating in a cafeteria, spending money on her own, and deciding what to do with her free time.

Emma will have so much more freedom and responsibility than I ever had at her age. I hope that she will have fun, be safe, and miss me a little bit. I also hope that I have done my job correctly and I won’t any get embarrassing phone calls asking me to pick up my daughter for bad behavior. I don’t want to have to do the walk of shame as an adult. Maybe I am just a bit jealous that I never got to go to sleep away camp, or maybe I am just jealous that I never had the courage?? By the way, I still have that same LL Bean sleeping bag