Today is a day designed to show third session campers the best things about CTT. We will play popular camp games and take part in chunks of activity days from the first two sessions. There will be a talent show, a play and even a new camp activity known as Granny’s Candy. It is looking like this will be a pretty good day (especially if these pesky dark clouds stay off in the distance).
With all due respect to the people that planned the Best of CTT day, the activities aren’t the best things about CTT. These things are great, but last night while I was playing ping-pong with my cabin I realized that these activities pale in comparison to the real best thing about CTT: the people.
So many things can happen during a single session at CTT: lifelong friendships are forged over the turmoil of living in a tent, memories are made at the most trivial of times and you see the faces that you hope to see in a crowd for the next year. The people here make the smallest moments special. For example, I huddled around a laptop screen and watched a movie with my cabin last night. My small Dell screen is a far cry from the large plasma screens a lot of these kids are used to, but we had a few snacks and laughed almost the entire time. I saw the same thing with cabin G’s dance party and cabin 8’s campfire.
So it doesn’t matter what we do here, really. All that matters is that we get to do it with our friends who we may only hang out with for a few weeks out of each year. Camp is a natural breeding ground for funny traditions and the best kinds of inside jokes. All of these things help result in these memories that everyone here, camper, counselor or admin, holds dearer than almost any other memory that we have.
So maybe the Best of CTT day will truly represent the best of CTT. It may not come from the specific activities we do today, but we will be there with the people we want to be with. We will be participating in this rotation of activities with a huge group of our best friends. I think that our friends are the best thing about CTT, so in a roundabout way I guess today really will represent the best of CTT.
And in that regard, the rainclouds are never a threat.