Camp Nebagamon

By Adam Kaplan

I have to admit, this is one of the more challenging times of the year for me. It is really difficult to go from spending nearly 100% of each day outdoors, spending tons of time in nature, and being engaged with hundreds of children and adults nearly every minute of the day, to spending nearly 100% of each day sitting at the kitchen counter (my makeshift desk after I was banished from the basement following a truly life upending sewer backup….gross!) in front of my computer, and engaged only with Rocky and Apollo (our dog and cat). Admittedly, each year, during these first few weeks of being back “home” after a summer in Lake Nebagamon, I find whatever excuse I can to get myself out of the house and find something to do outside. 

This is very similar to the experiences that so many parents recount to me about their son’s reintroduction into home life after a summer up at camp. They go from a place where they are one of 200 boys, to a place where they are one of very few (or maybe even the only) kids. The boys go from living in a room with ten other people, to living in a room by themselves (or perhaps a sibling). They go from an environment in which they are playing outdoors nearly all day, to an environment in which they spend nearly all day sitting in a classroom. They go from a place where their exposure to electronics and video entertainment consists of….well none(!), to a world in which televisions and computers are around every corner and the only thing that limits their exposure to these things is their own self-regulation (and perhaps a rule or two around the house!). They go from a world in which each day they choose exactly which activities they will engage in every day, to a world in which they have far fewer choices and their schedules are pretty much dictated to them. 

This is very similar to the experiences that so many of our staff members recount to me about their reintroduction into their other lives as well. For most of them, they shift from a world in which they are asked to serve as role models for hundreds of boys, to a world in which they are asked to keep up to date with their assigned readings and write lots of essays. They move from a world in which they are given tremendous responsibility for the health, safety and happiness of other people’s children, to a world in which they are often reminded that THEY are considered children. 

Without a doubt, for each of us that spent a month or two up at camp during the summer, the transition from camp back to our other homes is a significant change. The lives that we lead at camp are dramatically different from the ones that we lead at home. It should come as no surprise to any of us that this transition can sometimes be a jarring and difficult one. All of us can relate to this challenge. How many of you have gone red faced after having shouted “Skal!!” in your classroom or at a social gathering? (I did it at a band performance of Josie’s just last week! Luckily, I live in Minnesota with plenty of Scandinavians, who didn’t think me odd at all…rather someone with a good idea and supported me with a “Skal!” of their own!) How many of you have been sitting at the table during a meal at home and found yourself humming a camp song that we used to sing in the Rec Hall? How many of you have been walking home from school, suddenly feeling the call of nature, and NEARLY pulling up to that big oak tree next to the sidewalk. These are the amusing sorts of situations that we all experience as part of our transitions to home. Then there are those other times…times that you find yourself just sitting in your room, feeling melancholy, and just missing it. Missing your friends, missing your counselors, missing the singing, missing your cabin, missing swimming in the lake….missing camp. 

Certainly these transition times are challenging and difficult, and, as anyone with even a little bit of life experience would tell you, a natural and inevitable part of life. All of our lives are punctuated with periods of transition. We all experience the childhood transitions from infancy to elementary school, the transition from elementary school to middle school, the transition from middle school to high school, the transition from high school to college, or the transition from a carefree college life to the world of “what are you going to do with your life?” So too, many of us will experience or have experienced the transitions from single life to married life, married childless life to having babies, having babies to having them become children, having the kids leave the house to…(well you can fill in the rest). 

Among the many lessons that we learn from our experiences at camp are the ones about how to cope with and accept transitions. We learn that we can in fact work through these tough times and that there is nothing wrong with struggling with it a bit. It all works out… 

Well, enough of this kitchen counter for now, I have to get outside for a few minutes….