Big Things in Small Moments

This week’s guest contribution comes from the Camp Starlight blog:

One of the best parts of camp is observing moments when campers could teach grown-ups a thing or two. One of them is the way in which campers are able to capture a moment. There are lots of big events at camp.  We write about those all of the time.  Arrival Day, the divisional shows, SWF, trips, the Olympic Break, and the list goes on.  But sometimes the best moments to be part of at camp aren’t those that involve the entire camp.  They’re those special blips in time when one happens to be near a Senior camper who just got a callback for a show as a after spending her entire camping career wishing for a callback, a camper who just scored their first goal in a soccer game, or a few campers who just returned from a surprise hike to Oz.  As small–and potentially insignificant–as those moments may seem, seeing the grins on campers’ faces and how animated they are as they share, it’s easy to see how these small moments are sometimes the ones that make a summer for some campers.  These moments may not be big for the entire camp, but they’re just as big as any “big” camp event for the campers who experience them.  These are also the moments for which campers and staff alike come to camp because they’re moments that only happen here.  And that’s befitting, of course.  Summer Camp is about discovery, and it’s in these small moments that even seasoned campers discover there is ALWAYS an element of surprise in camp.