So after my late night blog about the "young lad" who was losing sleep over one measly, little point, I'm yearning for a trip back to the 18461. I vividly remember my first trip up the one-mile driveway. It was about 6:30pm at night. It took only about 12 hours to drive 800 miles and another 1 hour to drive just 20 miles...I got lost...at least twice. But I remember pulling into the camp and being totally mesmerized...or cold...it was 85 degrees F in Nashville the day before I left. It was probably about 45 degrees F when I arrived at camp. I remember running to the trunk of my car to shuffle through one of my eight bags to find a sweatshirt. And then I met her. The woman who convinced me to come to Camp Starlight: Alyson Lee!
The first thing she did was give me a hug. I was slightly weirded out because I barely knew HER but I KNEW right away that I had arrived. I had found a special place. On top of the world. She asked how I was, how the trip went then immediately starting introducing me to the counselors who would become some of my best friends. Unfortunately, those people had just spent three weeks weed-whacking, laying sewer line, chipping paint only to go back and repaint. I don't exactly remember who I met that night. I was so tired all I asked was to go to bed. I was showed to my room...though not how to work the thermostat so I slept in all my blankets and my sleeping bag. It got colder than 45 that night.
I woke up the next day to find I had arrived 2 days earlier than I was suppose to be a camp for waterfront training. I woke up the next day to find out I had arrived on New Camper Day. I woke up the next day to find out I had absolutely no idea what was happening. So I was given a tour guide. Enter Mr. Collin Gumprecht. Ten feet tall All-American guy with a weird faux-hawk thing that I found out later never moved...even after sleeping...in water....nothing. I was told that I was suppose to follow this guy all day. It was the beginning of Collin's second summer and he was going to be a unit leader for lower camp. Having absolutely no idea what a unit leader was, I followed Collin around as we did odd jobs before the cars pulled up camp road with new campers and their families.
It was kind of fitting to be at camp on that day. That New Camper Day. These kids, like myself, were beginning a long, what would be seven week, journey for them away from the family and most of their friends. They would have very limited access to the outside world. They would be in a place which they would be unfamiliar. But I knew exactly how they felt. At twenty years old, only when I went to Kentucky Christian College for church camp had I ever been away from my family for a week. Even then, I was surrounded by my church friends and my church leaders. I had no idea what to expect for the eight weeks that I was going to be at camp.
But then there was Collin. Collin showed me the ropes that day. He let me follow him around, ask questions that must have seemed like common sense, and introduced me to the counselors who had already been there for three weeks. If I needed anything I went to him. He was my guide for the next two days. He became my first camp friend. From the outsiders point of view, it would seem he hadn't done anything special. But to me, just having someone to take the personal time to guide me through everything and actually talk to me was special.
I'll always remember that first interaction at camp. Looking back on it, I know it is one of the unlimited reasons I return to camp each year. Collin didn't return my second year and I realized I would have to be that guide for someone else. It was a responsibility I took and cherished. Collin did return though for our third year. And became one of the Three Amigos, but that's another installment of Ten for Two.
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