Camp Nebagamon

By Adam Kaplan

As some of you might know, I was forced to delay my off-season travel due to a ruptured Achilles tendon. This means that I will be hitting the road this month with a vengeance. Between Jan 1 and Feb 16, I think I will be at home for a sum total of 5 days! This will mean that I will spend more than my fair share of time kicking around airports and airports this time of year can be total nightmares! The only thing that I enjoy about airline traveling during this time of year is the trip to the newsstand in the airports. Now in general I am not much of a magazine reader, but I have to admit that all changes during this time of year. This is the time of year when so many magazines come out with their “year in review” issues. I love these issues. Whether it be Sports Illustrated’s Best Moments in Sports, or Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, or Life Magazine’s Year in Review, or Camping Magazine’s 10 Hunkiest Camp Directors of the Midwest, I always enjoy sitting down and thinking about the year past, and remembering what has taken place over the course of the last twelve months around the world.

So too, it is kind of fun to spend a bit of energy looking back on the past year at Nebagamon. This past year has been a really fun and exciting one for camp. We had one of the best summers at camp that any of us can remember. We had a truly outstanding staff which consisted of a combination of extraordinarily experienced veteran counselors and staff, as well as one of the finest crops of first year staffers that any of us can remember. We had a truly awesome group of campers that were truly there for all of the right reasons. They were there to connect with nature, they were there to connect with generations of boys that preceded them at camp, they were there to connect with each other, they were there to connect with themselves, and they were there to connect with their own individual potential. We also all shared some wonderful experiences at camp this summer. I think most of us were relieved to have camp completely back to normal after finally emerging from the pandemic. This meant meals in that glorious camp museum called the Rec Hall, a full and robust wilderness tripping program with more than ten big trips, and free and total choice for every camper every day when it came to their activities. It was an amazing summer!

In addition to having the chance to reflect about the year just passed, this time of year also beckons for us to think ahead to what will be in the coming year, and what things we would like to do differently. This is such a common practice that we give these forward-looking promises a name. They are called our New Year’s Resolutions.

(Admittedly, it would be tough to come up with more of a cliché article for the Arrowhead than a New Year’s Resolution article! And, while it is certainly a bit cliché to discuss the whole New Year’s Resolution thing, I actually believe that it is a very healthy thing….and since I get to choose the Arrowhead topics….you are just going to have to deal with it!) In my experience, the New Year’s Resolution gets a bad rap. The entire concept of the New Year’s Resolution is the butt of jokes, and more so, simply something that people say they don’t have the time, energy, or desire to deal with. This leads us to develop and ignore bad habits. The group put-down of the New Year’s Resolution concept gives us all an excuse to avoid the introspection necessary to uncover what we need to do better.

I think this is a mistake. Virtually any successful person, whether they are a successful athlete or a successful business owner, or a successful parent will tell you that one of the keys to their success was to be able to evaluate themselves and identify areas which needed improvement. When Michael Jordan came into the NBA (ok….I am dating myself!) he had a decent outside jump shot, but it was certainly unremarkable. After he identified this as an area in which he could improve, he worked hard at it and eventually turned himself into an excellent outside shooter, thus dramatically improving his game. Also, whether it be a restaurant, a hotel, or a pet sitter, almost every successful business uses tools such as customer surveys and internal evaluations to evaluate itself and identify areas for improvement. Without this introspection, there would be very little growth.

Certainly we all know that success, when it comes to our professional lives, is dependent upon us casting a critical eye on our operations and making the changes necessary to improve. So why is it then that we sometimes resist applying the same concepts of introspection and active change to our personal lives? Much of the time we simply fall back on excuses. “I am too busy.” “I never follow through with my resolutions anyway, so why start?” “I am already stressed enough.” “I am who I am; there is no way I can change that.” “How could I ever hope to become chiseled enough to compete with that hunky camp director I read about in Camping Magazine’s year-end edition?” Admittedly, I often adopt one of these lines and therefore successfully avoid having to take a hard look at myself.

Not this year.

This year I resolve to make some New Year’s Resolutions! The nature of these resolutions is best kept to myself. (The editors of Camping Magazine begged me to do whatever I could to keep the illusion alive!). Though I think it unlikely that the result of these changes will garner me my own line of tennis shoes, I am hoping that I will have the willpower and stick-to-itiveness to actually affect these changes and continue to grow.

So here is wishing you a great end to the holiday season and a New Year filled with happiness, exciting adventures and successful introspection.