team CILT

There is nowhere on Earth that I feel more joy than at Camp Tecumseh. It's so great because no matter where you come from, everyone there will love you no matter what. The support and love and teamwork that I have gotten to share in for the past ten years of my life has been phenomenal. I feel so blessed to know such wonderful people and so blessed that I got to spend YET ANOTHER weekend there last weekend-- March 19+20. I arrived early with Sarah to help set up for the day and it was both fun and confusing. Fun because I got to see secret storage rooms and offices that I had never been in before. Confusing because I could not understand why on earth we needed a rope and exactly 98 plastic bugs for the day's activities. When everyone else started arriving, I was so excited.

I was also so excited to see both old and new counselors over the weekend. I see Sarah all the time at home, but it was so awesome to meet Carolyn and Linsey. They are such great girls who totally understand Camp and its purpose in all of our lives.

Seeing Beef for the first time since summer was awesome. He couldn't make it to the winter reunion and though that was a major disappointment, we were all sooo glad to see him this time around. He was really excited to be in the picture instead of holding the camera in this pic.

So it didn't take too long before I discovered what the plastic bugs were for. A nice little scavenger hunt where we had to hunt them down in River Village cabins. For about 20 or 25 minutes this game was great. Everyone felt super competitive and ready to win. After we had been searching for a half hour and were told that there were still over 50 bugs left hidden in cabins, we decided it was not fun anymore. 

The theme dinner was 'remember when this was cool?'. There were soccer uniforms, overalls galore, gauchos, crocs, and scrunchies. Everyone was unique and crazy-- it was Camp at its finest. The best part of dinner was watching everyone do the Berney.... or Molls adding some funny laughter to 'our song' as we stood on our chairs singing.... or singing the cucumber song with Mary Claire and Colleen at flagpole.... or dancing to Every Time we Touch..... or eating waaayyy to much pizza with Mary Claire. Basically dinner was the bomb. 

Devotions were pretty sad, but also encouraging. Everyone opened up to the group and let go of the fear of judgement or embarrassment. We shared our deepest secrets and hardest battles. We made ourselves completely vulnerable and for that reason we all became closer. I know that the circle we sat in was full of trust and love and support. I'm so grateful to have Team CILT to lean on and so glad that I can be there for all those people too. It was amazing to realize that even the people I barely know like Soaps or Linsey could relate to me and show me that they care. I couldn't believe how many people were going through the same situations as me. It was even harder to believe how many people were going through even tougher situations. It was sad to hear those stories, but it was so important that we all shared those things. It is so important that we know we can rely on each other.

I love you Team CILT. Thank you for being there for me and allowing me to be there for all of you.