The first week of camp has essentially gone the same way as most weeks at camp - halfway feeling like monday was months ago, the other half wondering how the days roll by so fast.
I think it's true that nobody can truly understand a summer at Snowbird without actually experiencing it, and it's true that the volume of shared experiences here have the ability to bring a seemingly random group of people together in ways that normal, day to day interactions don't have the potential to do. I love it here, and I love the way I have seen the staff come together to form a community that I never anticipated could be attained this quickly among a group of people that, at this time last week, were almost complete strangers.
This summer, I am working skeet shooting again, which is a blast as always. I am also guiding rafting trips on the Nantahala River this summer, which is a little intimidating but SO FUN. Today we did a river guide tradition called the "long swim" - essentially a way to teach us compassion for those who fall in the balmy, 48 degree water and to heighten our confidence in being in refreshing swift water. But I loooooooooove the river already, despite sore muscles and some pretty sweet bruises :) But in general, camp is great, and the process of adaptation to being here has come quickly... and for that, I am thankful. I am blessed with an incredible small group, and I can't wait to spend the summer with them and with both old and new friends that I get to live and serve with this summer.
One thing that has really served as an encouragement to me this week is Isaiah 55:8-9.
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
There are certain things about camp that have not quite gone the way I have expected. Certain things about life, actually, are not really in that exact neat, orderly position I would have chosen. I am not sure how this verse popped into my mind, or who pointed it out to me, but I know how much of both an encouragement and reminder it has provided since being here. The plans that I have for myself, for my friends, for my campers are absolutely nothing in comparison to the thoughts and the plans and the ways of my God. The more I grow, the more I have found those two lines merging, but I still am learning that I am not exactly the one who gets to call the shots as much as I still fight for that control. There are a couple situations that I honestly have no idea how they are going to look in a few months and am faithfully curious to see where the trail is at the end of these eleven weeks. It would be easy to panic right now, to constantly try to figure out the mind of God, but I am at the point where i KNOW i need to patient, because God's plans are so much better than what I could imagine. This summer is going to be a wild ride. But in the same way that I have learned to jam my Chacos against the sides of the raft and brace myself so I don't go flying in the rapids, I'm ready and excited to sit tight, hold on, and enjoy the ride.
Megan Bentley says I have to mention her in my blog. I think she's pretty cool. Actually, i think she's the coolest person ever and i definitely want to be like her when i'm older ;)
(for the record, Megan typed that last sentence. I just corrected the grammar)
5.17.2011
Day 1
While I don't really anticipate remaining consistent in blogging at all over the summer, I figured I better take advantage of the short-lived opportunity while I dug my laptop out to be responsible and pay my water bill.
I definitely think this has been the hardest beginning of camp I have ever had, even though I really only have two others to compare it to. On Friday, I went to see my friends at Clemson graduate, and then went straight to Toccoa to see my friend Jesy Cordle graduate and spend the weekend with her with her before she left for Utah. I feel like that time was so jam packed that yesterday, the chill first day of staff training, was the first opportunity I got to really process the weight of those goodbyes and knowing how different life will be in August, and it was not exactly an ideal way to start staff training.
I think more than anything, what I am realizing right now is that that this world is really not my home, and what the placement and role of God is in goodbyes. And how times like this make it so obvious that we were made for more than this world, for a final time where we won't be separated from people we love. Whether it's just separation from Clemson for the summer, from Lexington by living at school, or by friends who are called far away from South Carolina. I don't want to be separated from people I love by death or distance. I don't want to do goodbyes. I have so many more thoughts about this right now, but not enough time to adequately explain them, and honestly, not enough brain power either.
"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."- CS Lewis
I love you guys. For those of you asking for my camp address (and even those who aren't but I might be able to convince to send me mail by posting it) it's
Sarah Strickland
75 Mae Johnson Way
Andrews, NC 28901
and I really, really, really like mail.
I definitely think this has been the hardest beginning of camp I have ever had, even though I really only have two others to compare it to. On Friday, I went to see my friends at Clemson graduate, and then went straight to Toccoa to see my friend Jesy Cordle graduate and spend the weekend with her with her before she left for Utah. I feel like that time was so jam packed that yesterday, the chill first day of staff training, was the first opportunity I got to really process the weight of those goodbyes and knowing how different life will be in August, and it was not exactly an ideal way to start staff training.
I think more than anything, what I am realizing right now is that that this world is really not my home, and what the placement and role of God is in goodbyes. And how times like this make it so obvious that we were made for more than this world, for a final time where we won't be separated from people we love. Whether it's just separation from Clemson for the summer, from Lexington by living at school, or by friends who are called far away from South Carolina. I don't want to be separated from people I love by death or distance. I don't want to do goodbyes. I have so many more thoughts about this right now, but not enough time to adequately explain them, and honestly, not enough brain power either.
"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."- CS Lewis
I love you guys. For those of you asking for my camp address (and even those who aren't but I might be able to convince to send me mail by posting it) it's
Sarah Strickland
75 Mae Johnson Way
Andrews, NC 28901
and I really, really, really like mail.
5.09.2011
creeping closer.
MY BEST FRIEND IS A COVERGIRL.
How sweet is that?
I miss her.
The previous two summers, I have had roughly two weeks between moving home from Clemson and packing up and heading up to camp. This year, however, Clemson shifted our semester a week forward, leaving me with only three full days in Lexington. In actuality, I have a full week, but I am choosing to cut it shorter due to graduations and spending some time in Clemson and Toccoa, but I am realizing how hectic of a week I have set myself up for. I might lose my mind.
Exactly one week from now, I will be sitting in the Coop, either listening to Brody speak or mingling with the people who will quickly become like a family before the summer ends. I am fighting to find excitement for it. That's not really strange for me, just because I am never really a fan of change, and would always be more content to stay in the current chapter instead of jumping forward. I am not doubting my call to be at Snowbird this summer; I am confident in where I am supposed to be. I'm not having second thoughts. I know there are plenty of people well-deserving of the spot on staff that I have, and I wouldn't selfishly keep a spot if I didn't want it.
I know that if you ask me a month from now, I will be loving every second of it, and will fill nearly every conversation with camp stories. But right now, I am still associating the beginning of camp with the uncomfortable number of goodbyes I will have to say in the preceding days, and right now, I would be content with that time never coming.
I am fighting to want the week between now and camp to speed up.
How sweet is that?
I miss her.
The previous two summers, I have had roughly two weeks between moving home from Clemson and packing up and heading up to camp. This year, however, Clemson shifted our semester a week forward, leaving me with only three full days in Lexington. In actuality, I have a full week, but I am choosing to cut it shorter due to graduations and spending some time in Clemson and Toccoa, but I am realizing how hectic of a week I have set myself up for. I might lose my mind.
Exactly one week from now, I will be sitting in the Coop, either listening to Brody speak or mingling with the people who will quickly become like a family before the summer ends. I am fighting to find excitement for it. That's not really strange for me, just because I am never really a fan of change, and would always be more content to stay in the current chapter instead of jumping forward. I am not doubting my call to be at Snowbird this summer; I am confident in where I am supposed to be. I'm not having second thoughts. I know there are plenty of people well-deserving of the spot on staff that I have, and I wouldn't selfishly keep a spot if I didn't want it.
I know that if you ask me a month from now, I will be loving every second of it, and will fill nearly every conversation with camp stories. But right now, I am still associating the beginning of camp with the uncomfortable number of goodbyes I will have to say in the preceding days, and right now, I would be content with that time never coming.
I am fighting to want the week between now and camp to speed up.
5.03.2011
the repercussions of finals week on the human mind
Finals week. Never a happy time during one's college career. We will never be friends. I always hate it when people ask me if I am surviving finals week. Of course I am surviving. I am standing here talking to you - now could a corpse do that? I don't think so. Question answered.
1. I have been introduced to many new methods of procrastination. While I have still been maintaining adequate study time, maybe even to the point of excessive, I have also discovered many ways to stay sane while staring at a laptop screen for a majority of the day. If anyone is looking for procrastination methods, here are some of my personal favorites. Don't hate me when you don't get anything else done tonight.
Dear Blank, Please Blank, Tetris Friends, Awkward Family Photos, People of Walmart, StumbleUpon, Not Always Right, Gives Me Hope, Six Billion Secrets
2. My iTunes library. I'm pretty sure every song currently on my computer can fit into one of four categories.
1) sappy love songs
2) sad goodbyes
3) "hey life sucks, but suck it up, you can do it!"
4) dying babies
This is the downfall of nuking your harddrive.
3. I got a camelbak last weekend. Thanks mom. I've filled it up about four times today, maintianing adequate hydration during this finals week. All while reading about water intoxication and diabetes insipidus. Sorry, kidneys. Sorry, electrolytes. You're welcome, baroreceptors
4. I hope "where were you when you found out Bin Laden was dead" doesn't become one of those life-defining questions that my grandkids are going to ask me one day a la "Where were you on September 11th?" Because, let's be honest, I would probably lie, and not say that I was studying MedSurg in the Holmes Basement until my brain started leaking, and paying minimal attention to the news.
5. I saw a CAT bus pulled by not one, not two, but THREE cop cars, a sketchy looking man dragged off, handcuffed, and put in a cop car. Of course, this observation might have come about from more than one drive-by.
6. "I just turned in my application for death and dying" - Laura McLachlan
1. I have been introduced to many new methods of procrastination. While I have still been maintaining adequate study time, maybe even to the point of excessive, I have also discovered many ways to stay sane while staring at a laptop screen for a majority of the day. If anyone is looking for procrastination methods, here are some of my personal favorites. Don't hate me when you don't get anything else done tonight.
Dear Blank, Please Blank, Tetris Friends, Awkward Family Photos, People of Walmart, StumbleUpon, Not Always Right, Gives Me Hope, Six Billion Secrets
2. My iTunes library. I'm pretty sure every song currently on my computer can fit into one of four categories.
1) sappy love songs
2) sad goodbyes
3) "hey life sucks, but suck it up, you can do it!"
4) dying babies
This is the downfall of nuking your harddrive.
3. I got a camelbak last weekend. Thanks mom. I've filled it up about four times today, maintianing adequate hydration during this finals week. All while reading about water intoxication and diabetes insipidus. Sorry, kidneys. Sorry, electrolytes. You're welcome, baroreceptors
4. I hope "where were you when you found out Bin Laden was dead" doesn't become one of those life-defining questions that my grandkids are going to ask me one day a la "Where were you on September 11th?" Because, let's be honest, I would probably lie, and not say that I was studying MedSurg in the Holmes Basement until my brain started leaking, and paying minimal attention to the news.
5. I saw a CAT bus pulled by not one, not two, but THREE cop cars, a sketchy looking man dragged off, handcuffed, and put in a cop car. Of course, this observation might have come about from more than one drive-by.
6. "I just turned in my application for death and dying" - Laura McLachlan
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