Every session of camp has a completely different energy. Vibe, maybe, if you woke up feeling the 60’s this morning. Even with a good handful of returning campers, Second Session is shaping up to be exciting, ridiculous and fun in its own wonderful way. I could tell right away that Session 2 was going to be phenomenal when all the campers were totally down to move the very first evening activity inside for the rain. It went off without a hitch: campers flew from activity to activity, completing tasks and learning which things they might like to do more often during their time at camp. Interested in improv? Quick! Act out a skit using this rocket as something other than a rocket. Want to try canoeing? Better show how to put on a lifejacket. In an Activity Fair bingo, campers raced to complete all the required activities before time ran out. Even in the rain, it was a blast.
The next morning was time for scheduling. Everybody gathered in the dining hall, blank schedules in hand. This was not a timed activity, but the energy was just as intense. Plus, scheduling takes much more mental capacity than the Activity Fair. There’s a strategy to building your perfect day at camp. It goes a little something like this:
You have to start with Drama, Horses and Tennis. These are limited in spacing and in timing, and if you’re going to be in the play you have to have lots of spaces open for rehearsals and prop-making. If you happen to have scheduled yourself for mountain biking during one of the play’s rehearsal period, you’re out, my friend. So once you’ve reserved your spot in the play, or in the coveted Intermediate Tennis class, or on Speckleback out at the barn, you can move on to other activities.
Your next thought process is about geography. You probably want to take tubing, and you probably want to take field hockey, but you probably don’t want to take Tubing right before field hockey because they’re very far apart and you don’t want to get to field hockey dripping in lake water. So maybe you decide to go for riflery and then tubing, and do field hockey and rock climbing in the afternoon.
Everyone has their own goals for their schedule. Some head straight to the Arts and Crafts table, and fill most of their spaces with writing, arts and other creative pursuits. Others’ schedules are mostly full already by the time they leave team sports scheduling table. Scheduling is so intense when you’re doing it that you can forget that it’s all about what comes next, because after scheduling comes the real fun: actually doing all the awesome things you signed up for. Let the games begin!
Other Tall Timbers Happenings
– Alice Zhao won jailbreak in tennis
– Sam Coleman made his first half-court shot in basketball
– Eric Seigle won museum in drama
– Jami Siegal and Emily Smith hit the target in riflery
– Futsal World Cup teams have been made and the first game will occur today at free swim
– Emily Walke and Zoe Zhang won Red Light Green Light in Horses
– Writer in Residence Cristin Terrill is back for second session free swim and clinic writing workshops