Unedited Interview with AJ

AJ Bott shares her experience of attending summer camp at Lake Louise Christian Community. She explains that her grandmother worked at the camp and recommended it to her because of her love for the outdoors. The camp is located in northern Michigan and is about three and a half hours away from AJ's house. She describes the layout of the camp, including the dining hall, med cabin, bell field, lodges, cabins, and various activity areas such as the green, waterfront, and Fire Bowl. AJ has been going to camp for 13 years, starting with Teddy Bear Camp when she was six years old. She then progressed to Black Bear Camp and Polar Bear Camp. She now looks forward to counseling at middle school camp and has also attended high school camp. Last summer, she was both a camper and a counselor at the camp. AJ also mentions that she met her boyfriend at camp and they are still together. Hi, my name is Hayden Loman and I'm here with my friend AJ Bott. AJ, would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself? Hi, I'm AJ, I'm 19 years old, I attend Appalachian State University, and I met Hayden through the Fly Fishing Club here. Great! Today I'll be interviewing her about her experience with summer camp at Lake Louise Christian Community. So why did you start going to summer camp? So when I was a little girl, my grandma was visiting my house, and she's my favorite grandma of all time, I loved her, we were really close, we had just so much in common, and she was actually a secretary at this camp, so she handled all the finances and getting people registered, and doing all the background checks for counselors and summer staff, and just really organizing everything. So she told me one day, she was like, oh my gosh, AJ, you would love this camp, because she knew how much I love the outdoors, and animals, and this camp just had a lot of activities centered around playing outside, playing games outside, swimming, and different nature aspects, and learning all about the woods surrounding camp, as well as making new friends. And where is this camp? So as you know, I'm from northern Michigan, so this camp is located about three and a half hours from my house, which is like four and a half miles from the Vanderbilt exit, it's really in the middle of nowhere, it's on a little road called Thumb Lake Road, and it's actually on Thumb Lake, but the organization is called Lake Louise, so we just call it Lake Louise, but the most important part of the location of this camp is that it was .6 miles down the road from my grandparents' house. So as a kid, I grew up, because my grandma worked there, we would snowmobile to the lake just to go ice fishing, or participate in snowshoeing, or different events that the organization would host on the campground. Can you describe the layout of the camp? Yeah, so when you get to camp, you're driving down this dirt road, middle of nowhere, and you turn right after you see the big Lake Louise sign that has a picture of Fire Bowl, I'll get to Fire Bowl, because that's an important location at camp, it's everybody's favorite. So you turn right, and there's a parking lot, and then you check in at the dining hall, and the dining hall is where you eat all of your meals, and you don't really do much else in the dining hall unless you're there for retreats, which I actually have never been to, it's one of the only events at camp I've never partaken in. After the dining hall, you go to the med cabin, which is right down the path from the dining hall, and you check in all your meds, which I always did, but not everyone has meds, so not everyone checks their meds in. And then you reach the bell field, and the bell field is where, it's this big open field that has a bell on it, honestly, and that's where our emergency drills are conducted every Wednesday, and we play some games on it when we're prepping, when staff is prepping for our next activities. So to the left of the bell field is Halstead Cabin, which is one of the lodges, there's two lodges, Halstead and McKay is to the right of the bell field, and then if you go down the path on the other side of Halstead, you get to the chapel and the prayer trail, and if you take the prayer trail down, the prayer trail connects to the beach, the waterfront, and Fire Bowl, but you can also go to the right after McKay Cabin, so you have the bell field, you go to the right, there's McKay Cabin, and then there's Cabin Row, so that's where all the cabins are. McKay and Halstead are lodges, the rest are cabins. The lodges have two different sides that have, each have their own bathrooms, and each have, like, a certain amount of bunks, like, I would say six to eight bunk beds in each lodge, in each side of each lodge. The cabins have six to eight bunk beds total, and their own bathroom. However, the cabins used to not have electricity or plumbing, and there used to be a bathhouse in the middle. There's only one of those cabins left. It's called Don Doan. It was actually my very first cabin when I was six years old. It's kind of crazy that that's the only one they decided to keep. It was meant to be. I know, right? So you keep going down Cabin Row. There's probably a dozen or so cabins. Each cabin is named after a different donor, so someone's last name that donated to the camp. And you get to the end of Cabin Row, and to your right is the green. So we have games on the green a lot. There's a gaga ball pit, there's a baseball field, and there's a basketball court. And then there's, like, two soccer fields in the midst of all of that. And then, oh, there's also a ropes course in the woods on the green. I know, right? There's just so much to do. And if you go to the left at the end of Cabin Row, that's where the waterfront is and the tree climbing. So the tree climbing kind of divides the field with the beach. And at the waterfront, there's kayaking, and then there's, like, three different zones of the water in the lifeguard house and the kayak house. There's also a pavilion for people who don't love swimming, and they can just hang out in the pavilion. And, yeah, the most important camp, arguably, is between the chapel I talked about earlier and waterfront. So there's this trail that goes from the chapel to the waterfront, and on this trail is Fire Bowl. And Fire Bowl is, like, everyone's favorite part of camp. It's this, there's, like, rows of seating. You go downhill, and each, like, down the hill, there's, like, rows of seating in their chapel style, their church style. They have, like, pews. Yeah, yeah. But it's outside. It's not a building. It's outside with pews. There's two pathways down the pews. And then you get to the bottom, and there's this little cement area with a fire pit. And behind the fire pit is a cross, a giant cross. I mean, this cross is probably 30 to 40 feet tall. Wow. I am not great with math, but if I had to estimate, that's how much I would estimate. I mean, it's a huge cross, and it's a really pretty old wooden cross that someone carved. And then this cross looks out over the entire lake. So it's beautiful to see, like, the woods across the lake and just the water and the sunsets right there. It's everyone's favorite place. It's surrounded by woods, so you get, like, the bird noises and everything, and it's just the most important part of the layout of camp. But, yeah. And how long have you been going to camp? So, like I said, I started going when I was 6 years old. So that brings us to a total of 13 years. I spent one year at Teddy Bear Camp. And Teddy Bear Camp is for the youngest set of campers, and your parents actually go with you, and you stay in the dining hall. I know, right? The little teddy bears are so cute. They're just the babies at camp. I was 6, so I was, like, the oldest of the teddy bears. Usually the teddy bears are between, like, 3 and 6 years old, right? And I only went for a year. But you stay in the dining hall with your parents. It's kind of a fancier lodging situation. You have your own room instead of sharing with, like, other campers. So in your room, it's just you and your parents. So my mom and I went. And I think my grandma stayed a couple nights, too. But then after Teddy Bear Camp, you graduate Teddy Bear Camp, and you move on to Black Bear Camp. So I spent one year in Black Bear Camp because I kind of matured pretty young, and my grandma worked there. So she had a little bit of pull in what year I was participating in. Most of my friends were much older than me, so it made sense for me to skip, like, the other two years of Black Bear Camp and just be a little bit younger in Polar Bear. So I only spent a year in Black Bear. And in Black Bear, you spend, like, a night with a parent or a guardian. It's not necessarily your parents. It could be anyone, your grandparents, your guardian, your aunt, anyone, really, just your adult figure in your life. So my grandma spent the night there for Black Bear. And then you spend, like, two more nights with counselors without your guardians, right? So then after Black Bear Camp, I went to Polar Bear Camp. And this was my last year of Bear Camp. So Bear Camp is kind of like your elementary camp, right? So as a Polar Bear camper, I was, you know, a preteen. And it's an entire week with your counselor and no parents. So that's actually the camp I had the pleasure of counseling for this previous summer. The kids are usually, like, from, let's say, like, 8 to 12 years old. So after Polar Bear Camp, you go to middle school camp, highlight of camp. Middle school camp is the best camp. Everyone's kind of figuring out life. Everyone needs a reminder to wear deodorant. And you're messy at camp all the time. Again, you spend the entire week with just the counselor, and it's a blast. That's where I made some of my lifelong friends that I still have today. I'm super, super, super excited to be counseling at middle school camp this summer. And then finally, I went to high school camp. So a unique thing about this high school camp is you actually go for five years because you go the – well, I only went for five years. Usually you go for six years. I had a COVID year, so it got canceled for that year. But I went for five years because usually you go the summer before freshman year and the summer after senior year. So that adds up to six years. But with my COVID year in there, I only ended up going five years. So your senior year at camp is actually the summer after your senior year of high school. And finally, last summer, my senior year at camp, I not only was a camper for a week, but I also was a counselor for the polar bear camp for a week. And I decided to do that actually because, I mean, I'd always wanted to be a counselor, but my boyfriend that I actually met at camp when I was eight years old, we started dating in middle school camp, and we're still dating now, which is kind of crazy. But his two little brothers are in polar bear camp. So they asked me. It's really nice. I know. I had, like, the best time ever. I got to spend a whole week with them at polar bear camp. So it's kind of like they were on their own, but they also always had me if they needed to, like, call their mom or anything because they're also from North Carolina. So it's a far way from home to go for summer camp. And especially, they're only eight and nine years old. So it was a blast, though. I definitely really enjoyed it. Why was it so important that you returned each summer? So really the only answer I can give you to this question is an answer that every single camper, counselor, staff member would tell you. The reason that we go to camp is the community, the people, everyone there. Camp is not camp without the people. And a really great example of this is actually during COVID summer, so this was summer of 2020, like the summer after our quarantine, our big quarantine, you know, in order to make more money because all of our camps were canceled, the facility was renting out individual cabins to families. So it was kind of a cool thing that you could go visit with your family. But anyone who did that during that time period, me, my best friend that I met from camp, and my dean from high school camp all would tell you it was not the same. It was not nearly the same. The people weren't there. You were in the place, but the people weren't there. And I can tell you this because being so close with my grandparents, I have visited camp in the winter. I have visited camp over Thanksgiving break. Other times in the summer when there aren't camps going on, I've gone just to, like, go kayaking or, like I said before, go ice fishing, things like that. It's not the same. Without the people, it's not camp. The people and the community are what make camp, camp. So for me, I mean, growing up, I had nightmares as a kid that my mom would register me for the wrong week of camp. I know. And that I wouldn't get to see my friends, especially because I had so many friends that I only saw at camp. So my best friend to this day, but I just went on a girls' trip with recently, with you, actually, that you know her. She lives in Southern Ohio. So for a long time, I only saw her at camp. I now see her more regularly than that. But I used, like, for a couple years, she was my best friend, and I only saw her once a year. My boyfriend, I only saw him once a year until we were, like, 12, so 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Five years, I only saw him once a year. We weren't dating during that time, but we were still best friends. His brother, he has three brothers. His oldest brother, he is my best friend. I only saw him once a year. His two little brothers, I see them now counseling. My dean, Liz, I still, I've never seen her outside of camp, but she's one of the people that's closest to my life. And I look to her for advice at every turn of events. Just all these people are what make camp, camp. And everyone at camp is a part of this community. Every single person, like, there's no social cliques like there is in high school. There's nothing quite like it. Like, every single person values every single other person. Every single person could talk to each other, and it would be totally normal. Like, it's not like when you walk into the lunchroom in high school, and you have your clique, you have your table at school. You could easily walk into the dining hall or any activity during any part of the day and go sit down and talk to anyone, and it would be totally normal. And you probably know this person from years prior, and if you don't, then it's a new friend that you're ready to make, and there's not a social clique or anything limiting you from bonding with this person. You're, everyone's there for the same reason, to just kind of love each other and experience camp and have a great time, and that is what makes camp, camp. So what was your daily schedule like? So I actually have my name tag, and on each name tag, the front is your name, obviously, and then on the back is your daily schedule. It quite literally says right there, daily schedule. So I can actually walk you through it on here. So this says 7.30 wake up. However, this is the tag from freshman year, so it varies. There's definitely times where we don't wake up until 8.30, and on the schedule, breakfast is until 9. So 7.30 is kind of a suggested wake up time if you have campers that like to shower in the morning or things like this, or things like that, sorry. And this is also just a schedule for high school campers. So like little kids are getting up earlier. High school campers are able to sleep in, I would say most times around until like 8.30, unless you're hopping. Hoppers are the people who go and they prep your meal. So like they set the table, they wash the table, they get the chairs out, stuff like that. And they have to leave. The hopper bell rings, that bell on the field, it rings, and the hoppers go and they hop breakfast. So they have to do that at 8.45. So really, 7.30 to 8.45, that's almost an entire, that's over an hour that you don't have anything scheduled to do. So you can really sleep during that time, as long as you're not a hopper. If you're a hopper, you probably get up at 8.30, you have 15 minutes, you're ready to go hop, right? So another thing that's changed about hopping since COVID is we eat outside now. It's actually kind of one of the blessings that COVID gave us. We had to eat outside during the year after the pandemic. So it was canceled in the following year. It was a very weird year. We all wore masks, there was no hugging. It was terrible. I know. We ate outside. It was okay. It was good to see people, but it was definitely a really eerie, like post-pandemic world. Yeah. It was almost, it felt like post-apocalyptic. It was so weird. Anyway, so 8.45, the hopper bell rings and the hoppers go hop. And now they don't have to take the chairs down or wipe the tables. They don't just sanitize the tables. They just kind of have to wipe the food off if there's any on there because we eat at picnic tables outside. Whereas before we ate inside the dining hall, now we eat outside the dining hall. So you go to breakfast at 9 a.m. And then after breakfast, you have prayer groups. So your prayer group is a group of like four to six people and one male counselor and one female counselor. And you just, every day there's a different assigned topic to pray about. So sometimes it's like school, family, community, friends, yourself. Every day there's a different topic. And each day the topic relates to the overarching theme of camp. So previous themes have been like make a mess, where they talk about different Bible stories that made a mess. Last year was Christmas. So that was my favorite theme. And it was great to have that theme as my senior year. But each day the prayer topic will relate to the overarching theme in a sense of like the Bible story or what the actual topic is itself. So after prayer group, you have a little bit of downtime. And at 10-15 is worship. So that's like our morning worship. It's similar to like a church service, but there's a lot more singing and the songs are a lot more fun. I love singing in church. They're nothing like, they're not chapel-y songs. They're like upbeat, dancing, lots of music. If you want to be in the band, you so can. You can be up there doing dance moves. You can be singing and you can be playing instruments. The entire band is campers. And then this guy, his name is Joe Rudy, he's a counselor and he leads worship. So he does the singing and he plays the guitar. And it's just a really fun time, whether you believe in that kind of thing or not. It's a fun experience. I guess another thing I should touch on is although it is a Christian camp, you do not have to be Christian to go to this camp. It's an extremely welcoming camp and an extremely diverse camp with a lot of more liberal beliefs. So I would say like 40% of the people who go to this camp aren't even Christian. Like they aren't, and they're definitely not right-wing conservative Christian at all. It's a very welcoming camp and anyone can come basically. And anyone can enjoy this worship time too. So after worship, we have what's called community time, which you just kind of hang out while the next groups are prepped. So during community time, you can be playing Newcombe, you can play tetherball, you can just do crafts on your cabin porch, stuff like that. Just kind of staying where your counselor knows where you are, but you're just kind of doing whatever for like 15 to 20 minutes while the next activity, which interest group, is prepped. So every day you sign up for an interest group at breakfast. And your interest group can be anything from kayaking, to tie dye, to Petoskey stone polishing, to hiking, to bird watching, to rock painting, to games on the green, to sports. I mean, those are just a few. I know, there's lots of options. We have something for everyone. I personally ran the hiking interest group and the tie dye interest group while I was at camp. And then I also assisted the doggopole interest group. So each interest group has one counselor who runs it and one counselor who assists it. But yeah, that's basically the breakdown of the interest group. So interest group is at 1130. So by 1245, the hopper bell rings. So the hoppers leave their interest group and they go hop for lunch. And then you go to lunch. You eat some lunch. I guess I should tell you what some typical foods are that you would find at camp. The first Sunday of camp. Oh, by the way, camp is a week long. It's Sunday to Saturday. So Sunday when you get there, it's always pizza. It's always Little Caesar's pizza with Little Caesar's breadsticks. And just kind of because that's a meal that most people are used to. So you're not getting hit with everything new all at once. And then throughout the week, there's usually some sort of Thanksgiving dinner where you have things like turkey and mashed potatoes. There's a spaghetti night usually. It's the same food every year. It's just a different day. There's sandwiches. There's taco night. There's just kind of like your stereotypical American foods. So nothing like too shocking to kids. So they're kind of adapted to it. And then after lunch is a very controversial time of day. It's either your favorite or your most hated. And this is H hour. So H hour is horizontal hour, which is exactly what it sounds like, nap time. It doesn't matter if you're a teddy bear or a high school camper. You have to participate in nap time. So depending on how strict your counselor is, you might have to have lights off, mouth shut, laid all the way down in your bed, nothing in your bunk, quiet for the whole hour. Or, on the contrary, you could have maybe your fairy lights plugged in, the counselor's kind of on the porch, your bunkmate is in your bunk but also in their bunk because it's kind of a secret because you're not really supposed to be in each other's bunks. You're not supposed to be in each other's bunks talking or doing crafts together. But the counselor's on the porch, so it's like, okay, but don't say anything about it. You know, you're following the rules, but you're not trying to get your counselor in trouble. I have had varying extremes. I had one counselor who we just stayed up talking all night. My whole cabin did. And then I also had a counselor who I had to pass my phone open to the notes app back and forth between my best friend on the bottom bunk and me on the top bunk with the charger. We would use the charger to lower it down and then pull it back up, and we would write in the notes app to communicate. That was in middle school camp. But in black bear camp, we would send paper airplanes across the cabin with notes on them or have zip lines for baskets of markers or string to make friendship bracelets. That we would send from bunk to bunk. So we got really creative during each hour. So following each hour is rec time, and it's a great time. On Monday, which is your first rec time, you have the swim test, and then every day after that, based on your swim test score or whatever, if you pass, you fail, you get intermediate. There's intermediate, deep water, and shallow water. So whichever water you're supposed to be in, you get a wristband accordingly. And during rec time, you can play in the sand, you can play in the water, and sometimes we'll have a counselor run games up on the green because that's pretty close to the water. During rec time, there's lifeguards, and they go over the whole body system and everything. They also are the ones who run the swim test. And you can also go kayaking during rec time if there's enough lifeguards to take groups out and kayak. Sometimes, there's also a boat at camp. So sometimes they will have a counselor, if there's a counselor on staff or an executive director who has certification to take groups of campers out on the boat, you can go on a little lake tour. And on the other side of the lake, there's a bald eagle's nest. So that's kind of cool to see. And then there's also a water trampoline. We call it the shark. It's this big inflatable that you sit on, and it gets pulled behind the boat. So for all those, you have to wear life jackets, but you can also just collect rocks in the water or build sand castles, whatever beach festivity floats your boat. So then, rec time is 3 to 4.30. After that, from 4.30 to 5.30, you have family time. Family time can get cut a little bit short because in recent years, we've had a very high geese population, and we have not been able to get rid of them. Me, my previous dean, our nurse, Dr. Matt, the executive director, the dean's son, all take a little hunting trip in the fall and try to get rid of these geese. Well, we haven't been very successful so far. So the large geese population has led to a large number of swimmer's itch cases. So if you don't know, the biggest way to prevent swimmer's itch is showering immediately after you leave the water. So this actually takes up some time. So family time gets cut a little short. Most campers, if they were in the water, have to shower right after rec time. I did get swimmer's itch last summer, and I was a proud member of the white dot club. The white dots are the medicine they put on all your little swimmer itch. It's kind of like mosquito bites. It's itchy. They put this white medicine on them. So your whole body is covered in white dots. And it can be embarrassing for younger campers. You have to own it. Yeah, once your favorite cool counselor, maybe me, swimmers itch, and also has to have these white dots, you join the white dot club, which is what I started. I was like, this is the white dot club. There's no shame in the white dot game. So yeah, that's how. So that's why some campers have to shower right after rec time. So family time is another separate group of anywhere between 6 to 12 campers. Two counselors, once again, they usually tend to be male and female counselors. And this is your family. So the male counselor is your dad, and the female counselor is your mom. We also have non-binary counselors. So they're just your parents. It varies depending on each group. So each group, and you have your brothers and your sisters and your siblings in each group. And this is your family for the week. And in family time, there's a different activity. And it usually has something to do with our theme or getting to know each other or a Bible verse, stuff like that. Not really a Bible verse, more of a Bible story that you kind of go over with your family group. And family groups can be conflicting. Sometimes there's family groups that don't agree on things, and there's some conflict. I mean, you just don't really get into very deep conversations when you're in a conflicting family group. Sometimes family groups are a way that you can make new friends and meet people. And kind of what I was saying about community earlier, I think the biggest reason that our community is so tight-knit is that we have so many different times a day. I think there's like three or four different groups that we split up to in the day. So you meet so many different people. You make so many new friends. And, I mean, my favorite family group was my junior year. I still remember some of the conversations we had. We got into really deep topics and really deep conversations. And it's funny because that group was actually kind of the – it was like six of us. We had been going there the longest. We were the most talkative, and we were kind of the troublemakers. We weren't really getting in any genuine trouble. We just were talking. We weren't supposed to be – stuff like that. And our parents were the two deans of the camp. So it was actually really funny that we all ended up in the same family group. And we kind of joked about that at first, but then immediately, like the next day, got into some really deep topics and got to know each other a lot better, even though we'd known each other since we were like little kids. So family group is just definitely a time where you get to experience new people, new thoughts, and new conversations. After family group, the hopper bell rings at 530, and then there's dinner. You go to dinner, and there's usually a dessert at dinner. When I was a little kid, there was an ice cream sandwich eating contest one day a week at dinner, or like a s'more eating contest. I have won the ice cream sandwich eating contest and the s'more eating contest. Oh, that's great. And you usually get a little $5 certificate to the camp store. Oh. Oh, camp store is a really big deal, especially for little kids. They're very excited about the camp store. So at the camp store, you can bring your cash from home, or your parents can send you with some money. And there's candy, T-shirts, sweatshirts, stuffed animals, postcards, a book from Uncle Ted. Uncle Ted was this guy who went to camp for like 70 years or something. Not as a camper. Oh, yeah. And then he was on the board. He actually recently passed away like two years ago. But he was not actually anyone's uncle. Everyone just called him Uncle Ted. He was great uncle age. He was a very, very old guy. And he actually played the violin, too. Oh. He would play the violin in every talent show. That's on Thursday night. We'll get to that. But, yeah. So his book that he wrote about his life was in there. And just lots of different fun camp items that you can buy at this camp store. And the camp store is open during lunch and dinner, Monday through Friday. So after dinner, you have devotion, which is you leave the dining hall, you grab this piece of paper, and you go out onto the campground, usually around the bell field, and you just find a spot by yourself. It's supposed to be just you, God, and your devotion paper. And you read this paper, and it kind of has a message of mindfulness, of some things to think about. And you just kind of sit in the sun with the nature and the bird noises by yourself. You're not really supposed to be talking to other campers during this time. And you just kind of reflect on yourself, on your experience at camp, your life, just everything. You just kind of sit and you think. And it's a really great nature submersion. It's not a very long amount of time, probably between 10 and 20 minutes. And it could be even less than that. It could be 5 to 10 minutes. But you don't really have any sort of time because you're not any sense of time. You're not on your phone. You're just sitting there with your thoughts. And it's a good reflection time. You can pray, too, during that time. A lot of campers do that. And then after devotions, the bell rings, and you break off into your decel groups. And in decel, once again, you have a paper. And you just kind of talk about your devotion for that day. And you have two counselors and a group of campers. It's anywhere between four and eight campers. And you just talk about what you thought about during devotion. And sometimes there's activities where you make, like, prayer beads or stuff like that. After decel, you head to your cabin and you get ready for evening programs. So every day is a different evening program. But most of the time, the week, like every year, it's the same activities for evening program. It's just different each day, if that makes sense. So usually on, like, Mondays is block party. So there's, like, a bunch of different activities set out on the game field, the games on the green field. And you just kind of rotate in, like, stations. And that's a really great time. And there's music and there's popcorn. And anyone can just talk to anyone. And that's kind of your first time, your first period of unscheduled time during the week. So you can just kind of meet people. Other activities include, like, s'mores is usually Tuesday. Stargazing is usually Wednesday. Thursday is the, well, actually, Thursday is the talent show, usually. Which is actually the variety show. There's no talent required. And our host will be sure to tell you, you do not need to have talent. I sing in the variety show every year. And there's lots of different skits and things that you can participate in. And then Fridays is, like, special night. So that's when they split you up by year. So you have your incoming freshmen, your freshmen, your sophomores, your juniors, your seniors, and then your, like, post-graduation seniors. So the incoming freshmen and freshmen are kind of together. The sophomores and the incoming freshmen and the freshmen are together. And the sophomores are their own group. And I actually didn't have a sophomore year. So my freshman year, because my freshman year there was a glow stick party. And you're thinking, like, you know, like, 20 kids in this room. Lights are off. They got their glow sticks. They got music. People dance, almost, you're thinking. They're freshmen. Whatever. Well, my freshman year, our class size was five people. So there was five of us sitting in chairs in a circle with our glow sticks and some music. And we actually got started really late. We were running behind all day. So we got really started really late at our glow stick party. So we had about ten minutes to participate in our glow stick party. So we were told that we were, and also my class was a class of people who had been going since they were little kids. So we knew the counselors pretty well. So we were told we got two songs. So, of course, we picked Bohemian Rhapsody, which is, like, a really long song. Right. And Take Me Home Country Roads by John Denver, right? Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. And which is also a very long song, but a classic for our grade, our class. Right. So we, that was our glow stick party. And then your sophomore year, I'm honestly not sure what the activity was because mine got canceled. Right. Junior year is your first camp out year. Oh. So everyone gets their sleeping bags and heads to the Games on the Greenfield. And there's two tents. There's a boys' tent and a girls' tent. And you basically can stay up as late as you want with candy and snacks. And there's two counselors, but they kind of just go in the tents and let you guys bond as your class. And we just, we played games all night long. I mean, we were up until, like, 4 or 5 in the morning. We all had known each other for so long, but it was just such a fun time. I mean, you're out in the dark in the middle of upper Michigan, in the middle of nowhere. There's no light pollution around. The stars are beautiful. You're laying on the ground with all your friends. You're eating candy. You're telling jokes. You're telling stories. You're playing truth or dare. You're playing truth or a lie. You're playing Pictionary. You're just, you're getting to know each other, and you're really just hanging out as teenagers. And it's really just a fun time. And then, obviously, of course, the counselors come out, and they tell you, okay, bedtime eventually. And you go back into your tents, and you've got to go to bed because you've got to get up the next morning. So everyone's very exhausted after this. So then, it's all kind of built up until senior year. Senior year, you also camp out. However, instead of staying on the campground on this side of the lake, everyone gets their sleeping bags and their pillows and their stuffed animals and loads up into the boat, drives the boat across the lake, and gets to camp out on our property that's across the lake. So it's pretty cool, and it's a pretty big deal. And you kind of spend your whole high school years at camp waiting for your senior year to go camp out across the lake. It's also your last year at camp, so it's kind of a big deal. And there you have, like, a bonfire and your tent, and this is kind of the same thing, but it's cool that you get to go across the lake. And also, by the time you're a senior, you've kind of bonded more with the dean, Liz, and Phil. Liz took us this year, and she stayed out there with us, and she just talked right about everything with us. And you just kind of talk about what's next for you if you're going to university, if you're not going to university, what you want to do with your life, really, and, like, camp and everything in general. On this camp out night is also the same night that senior speeches happen. So whoever the senior is that year, they talk about – they actually have three points that they have to talk about. They talk about their experience at camp, like, what they love about it, their – how camp has, like, developed their relationship with God, if it has at all, and then their third topic of discussion is a message for, like, the campers. My senior – your senior speech was supposed to be, like, two to three minutes. Mine was, like, nine minutes. Wow. I opened my speech with, like, hi, guys, my name is Ava, and if you don't know, I've been going to camp for a really long time, so – Buckle up. Buckle up. My years combined with how much I like to talk kind of gives me a lot to say. I was given five minutes. I will do my best, Liz, I promise, the dean, Liz, and she giggled, and it was a great time. I – everyone cried during my speech. I cried during my speech. I was the last senior on the last night. These are also at Fireball. I don't know if I mentioned that. So a different person talks every night. Usually there's two to three people each night. But anyway, I digress. Back to my schedule. So those are the evening programs that occur, and the campouts occur after Fireball, so you still get to go to Fireball those nights. So Fireball, that location I was talking about with the pews and the cross and the lookout and the water and the fire pit and the sunset, all that, this is everyone's favorite part of camp. You sing. Someone who feels called to speak that night goes down, speaks in front of everyone, you sing some more, and that's just kind of your closure of the night. It's a really spiritual place for a lot of people, but even if you don't believe in that sort of thing, even if you're not, like, connected with God, so to say, you're connected with the community. So it's still such a special location for you, and everyone I've ever talked to, this is their favorite part of camp. So you gather for Fireball, and that's where your bug spray happens, and sometimes there's s'mores at Fireball because there's a fire pit and everything. And after Fireball, it's just kind of your wind down for the night, and you just head to the med cabin if you can. I was always a med cabin goer because I always had medicine, and you get to take a buddy. So my boyfriend went with me, my best friend went with me, and it's just kind of a couple extra minutes you get to talk to someone. And then you get back to your cabin and you do your devos, so you kind of just talk about, like, the best part of your day, the worst part of your day, and everyone gets a chance to talk, and then you just discuss Bible verse briefly, and you brush your teeth, and maybe shower if your counselor lets you shower at night, and then you go to bed. And that's just kind of what a daily schedule looks like. Wow. I see that you were reading that off of your name tag. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? Yeah, so every year at camp, you check in at the dining hall with your parents, you head to the med cabin, and you register all your medicines. And then you stop in Horner, which is where worship is, it's this big building in the middle of everything, and you make your name tag. So on your name tag, you write your name, and then on the other side is a little piece of paper with your schedule on it, and then your counselor laminates them together. But just writing your name would simply not be elaborate enough, apparently, because we also have lots of doodles and stickers and all kinds of decorations that are on each actual name tag. So I, kind of a, I don't know, bragging rights, cool thing that we do is we collect our name tags for every year we've been to camp. So, although I have been to camp since I was six years old, I started collecting my name tags in high school. So I have one, two, three, four, five, yeah, five. I have five name tags. Yeah, five name tags. I also have another sheet of paper on here, I'll get to what that is in a second. But each name tag has like a different thing, so this is my name, and this one I drew a rainbow on, this one has a sunflower, that one has a pine tree, and then this one just has a bunch of stickers, there's a bear, a deer, a tree, a puppy, all kinds of things, and then this one has sunflowers and a pine tree. So, each year I just kind of decorated it differently with my name and whatnot. And then also on your name tag, this first thing that I have here is a little fidget, it's a little pop-it fidget that I was given during devotions. Each year, on usually the first or second day of devotions, Liz will sit out a bin with your paper for devotions that day, and a little fidget. Because like I said, it's kind of like an individual, independent time, so some kids need a little fidget to have something to do with their hands while they're, to stay focused, you know? And then I have this beaded animal deer that a camper made for me last summer while I was a counselor. I just think it's so cute, so I put that on there. I have another fidget from a different year. A friendship bracelet that is really, really dirty. You can see the grime. I believe this friendship bracelet is from middle school, from my best friend, Lena. It looks good. Yeah, it looks good. For those of you who can't see, the viewers at home, it's supposed to be white, green, and two different shades of blue. The white is very much gray. It's very dirty. I promise it's not carrying COVID or anything like that. It might be. It might be. But it's very old. And then next I have this little, I mean, small, I mean, how big would you say that is? I think it's medium-sized. Like a dollar coin size, right? I'm trying to describe it for them because they can't see. But a dollar coin size piece of, like, wood, like, cut up, like, the trunk or, like, a branch, you know? So you can see, like, the ring type of thing. And it says on it, on one side, in green Sharpie, Lake Louise, 2016. And then it says my name, Ava. And then on the other side, it says, God loves you, and there's a little heart. And my counselor gave me this in 2016, which I was however old. I mean, I was born in 2004. Oh, gosh. Twelve, maybe? I don't know. Eleven. Eleven. Something like that. And then there's also this piece of paper from one of my Dcell groups. And it has a little prayer on it. It's a laminated piece of paper, so I just slipped that right on here. It has a little prayer on it. And then it has, it's from 2021. It's from As We Are, which is the high school camp. And Ethan and Krista were my Dcell leaders, so their names are on there. Cool. And then, second to last, I have this little dog tag that I made my freshman year at high school camp with my now boyfriend, who was not my boyfriend at the time. And it was just a little activity we did with, I think I want to say our family groups. I'm not really sure which group it was, but one of the groups. We made dog tags, and there was supposed to be one word or like a little phrase that represented your face or whatever. So mine says love all, because my face has just always been kind of something that's open and welcoming to everyone. And it was also very representative of camp. But it's important to note that the L is actually an I, and the A is upside down and the V is sideways. Because we also dropped, we were doing this on a wood porch with like little gaps in between each board, and we dropped many, many letters down there. And I'm sure if anyone ever were to tear down Halstead, the cabin, or the lodge, there would be many, many wood letters stamped underneath. And then finally, there is tabs from I don't know how many, a lot of different energy drinks. Mostly Monsters, because my best friend Weston drank them, and I had like the ghost energy drinks, and we would have energy drinks every morning at camp because we just really needed that energy. And we were teenagers getting up at 830, so it was crack dawn for us. We were sipping on those all day long. Do you have any other mementos from camp? Yeah, actually. So every year at camp, when you check in, I guess I forgot this little part in the last section. When you get your name tag, you also, or when you make your name tag, you also get your T-shirt. It's free with the camp. When you pay for the camp, you pay for your T-shirt. And every camper has one. They're all the same, and they're all the same color, and they all have the same thing on them or whatever. And they have something to do with the theme from each year, and they usually have maybe a Bible first, like not the actual thing right now, but like the John 360 or whatever, like something like that. And they say like Louise Summer Camp and whatever on them. But you get one every year, so every camp gets the same one. Like every teddy bear, polar bear, black bear, middle school, all of them get the same one every year. So you can tell like how long someone's been at camp by what T-shirt. If they're wearing that T-shirt, then it's from this year or whatever. So I actually, the summer before my senior year, my grandmother and I, the same grandma who introduced me to camp, made all of my T-shirts from all my years at camp into a quilt. So it's this big, giant, like king-sized quilt. And it was really hard because I was a very different size at 6 years old versus 16 years old. So I had lots and lots of T-shirts in this quilt. And my senior year, I actually used that as my bedding for my bunk bed. And it was really sweet. And I also had like a bunch of my friends like sign it and things like that. So it has like all my camp memories in it. What do you look forward to as a counselor this summer? As a counselor this summer, I really just look forward to being able to give back to the community. I feel like this community has given me so much. I mean, without going to camp, I wouldn't be here at State. It's crazy how the world works, but it's kind of like a butterfly flap swings and a tornado happens, you know? I really think camp has positively impacted every single aspect of my life. And without it, I don't really know where I'd be at today. So I hope that I can just contribute to creating that sort of environment for the little kids that are going to camp this summer. I'm also really excited for my boyfriend's little brothers to be there. And this is my first year counseling middle school camp and their first year at middle school camp. And like I said before, middle school camp is the best camp of all the years. And a big piece of that is because the counselors are the best age. They're like college-age counselors. So they're really cool and everybody loves them. So I'm excited to be not only, hopefully, a favorite counselor of my campers, but a favorite counselor of the deans too. And someone that they know they can rely on because I have so much experience with camp in general. Why did you decide to become a staff member after graduation? So like I said in the last question, camp has just always been a part of my life. And I can't imagine a world that I live in that I'm just not part of this community. So I really look forward to giving back. And one way to do that, so counselors are only there for a week, but full-time staff members are there for the entire summer. So I decided to get my lifeguarding certification and become a lifeguard for this entire summer. And I will be living in a cabin at camp all summer, my own cabin. I will be preparing the food for the campers and making the fires and doing general maintenance around the campground and just really helping out. And I'm super, super excited to work as full-time summer staff. It's something I've dreamed about since I was a little kid, just being a lifeguard. I remember my grandma telling me about this position and being like, wait a minute. So you get to live there, you get to eat the food, you get to stay at camp all summer, and they pay you? I was shocked. So I recently had my interview, and the executive director gets on this Zoom call with me, who actually my grandma hired as her intern and her personal assistant. And he's now the executive director of the entire organization. He was hosting my interview, and the fellowship and outreach leader, who was my counselor for three years, and I wrote a song with him. And my best friend and two of my best friends, and him and I wrote a song together and performed it in the variety show. So I know him very well. I've known him for years. They both interviewed me, and I didn't even get off the Zoom call before they offered me a job. And I was just so ecstatic and looking forward to being there. And I just really think I'm a perfect fit, and I'm going to love this summer. And I'm so grateful that last summer doesn't have to be my last. Well, thank you so much for chatting with me today, AJ. I really enjoyed hearing about your camp experience.