So we made it to the halfway point of Covid Summer 2020! Awesome! Way back in April we had serious doubts that we would be allowed to even let your guys escape the world of home school shelter-in-place and spend some time on the banks of the Guadalupe. We remind ourselves every day that it’s a blessing to be out here. This year especially!
I wish we could all just be kids again. Not just because we would get to go to camp. Not just because we could do the rope swing without our arms hurting. Not just because we could spend a class period sneaking around looking for the camp dogs with handmade dog detectors. Not just because getting a Pokemon book in the mail is cool. But because life is still so simple and so happy.
As you know, right before First Term ended, we received a last minute update from the Health Department and Governor’s office concerning enhanced mask times in cohorts. Us grown ups stressed a little about how hard it might be to suggest….and how hard it might be to enforce. And how hard it might be to explain. And how hard it might be to remember all day. Well, we announced it at lunch the day we received the update. We passed out some CLJ neckwear, and crossed our fingers for success.
Guess what the first thing we heard might have been? “Cool. Do we have to turn this back in, or can we keep it?” Know what the second thing we heard was? “Cool, you mean we get to keep this?”. The third? “Awesome, this is free.”. No whining. No complaining. Just camp! I wish we were all kids again and it was all so easy again.
On closing morning, I got to audit the luggage transfer process (organized mayhem) and I think our work in the first sessions was pretty successful! Happy, healthy, suitably accomplished guys everywhere, but too pre-occupied with a search for Doodlebugs under the rocks to be too worried about going home. It’s up to you to keep them sheltered from any knowledge of the Global Pandemic for the rest of the summer buy facebook followers. We got them tuned into Swimming, Horses, Riflery, Bows and Arrows and running around chasing lightning bugs instead. As far as they’re concerned, “what pandemic?”.
As our First Terms go home, I want to thank you each for allowing us to watch your guys grow a little this month. I keep saying it, but “Thank God we got to have camp.” These dudes needed a touch of normal. They needed to run. They needed to play. They needed to hang out and visit. It shows in their faces. It shows in their tans. It shows in their bad haircuts! (Hopefully the barbershops stay open.) We actually love that we got to have even a little bit of camp while the rest of the world was in pandemic mode. It makes us appreciate our guys and our families that much more. See you Friday!
Life is Good. Camp is Better. Boo Covid. Here’s to the little guy spirit!
Blake
