tours of camp on mondays are always one of the times for happy reunions with old campers. ask any of my girls from any week this year, they'll tell you i paused our tour at least once(usually plenty more times than that) to go hug a girl from another cabin and tell her staffer to take care of her because she's special. once we get back to the cabin i always tell my new ones "don't worry, if we're both back, you'll get one of those next year!"
but one monday this summer i got a surprise of my own.
i'm standing in front of the admin, telling my girls about the flying squirrel, when i hear a voice screaming "LINDAAAAAAAAAA!" and this teeny little girl who i swore i'd never seen before comes running at me like a bullet with the biggest smile on her face and launches herself into my arms. i hugged her and did a pretty convincing job of acting like i knew her; the usual tricks of using a term of endearment instead of her name, saying i'm glad she's here, all those little tricks(which by the way none of those are lying; i'm glad every camper is there, and i did hope i got to see her more that week because i mean she was adorable). she ate it right up and went skipping back to her cabin, turning around a few times to look back at me, with her face still lit up like it was christmas morning.
that night at dinner she did the same thing as i walked past her table. after she let go i waited for her to turn her back to me then frantically went to the next table and asked one of her staffers(i'm pretty sure she was in cabin 15, so i guess it was bailey) what her name was. from here on out i'll call her B. bailey or whoever it was told me she'd been asking about me all day. i admitted that i didn't remember her at all, and she says "well she's pretty much in love with you. i guess you did something!"
every day that week, anytime i saw B(which wasn't very often because we were in separate units), she'd get just as excited as she had on monday. and she was always smiling. one day she got in line to go canoeing for free time, but we filled up so she couldn't go, and when i told her, she just shrugged and said "oh. oh well!" and skipped off to puppets like it was the most fun thing in the world, not something lame for the overflow from the popular choices. she was always so happy, and every time i saw her i'd get happier too.
on friday morning at breakfast when she came and saw me like usual, i told her that i'd really miss her hugs next week and that they'd always made my day, and she looked surprised and said "really?? you made my day too!"
that afternoon i expected her to be a cryer, since she loved camp so much. but she ran to her mom all excited, came back and hugged me for a long time, said she loved me and she'd miss me. then she left, all with her usual huge smile like she'd slept with a coat hanger in her mouth. which was lucky for me, because seeing her still be her bouncing, happy self made me able to not cry my eyes out over my last one of those hugs. =]
campers like her amaze me. one of my acteens, whose first year at camp was my first year working, told me she'd always loved me when she was little and was glad she finally got to be in my cabin. then i've had other girls who i remembered, but who tell me stories that i didn't remember happening until they talked about them then.
you never know what kind of hat tricks God might pull at camp. things that seem insignificant to you, whether positive or negative, a camper may remember for the rest of their life. i hope i never forget that.
