Lucy Finishes Sleepaway Camp

 

Photo Credit: Etan Horowitz

Dearest Lucy,

By the time you get this letter, you will have completed four weeks of sleep-away camp in the Pocono Mountains. Daddy will be there for "family day," see the show you've worked on, and then collect you and your duffels for the trip home. By the time you arrive home, Mom will have returned from visiting your brother Jack at his camp in Maine, where he will be staying for the full season.

Your very sweet letter, written in pencil so light I had to reach for my reading glasses, arrived here in Brookline yesterday. Have you any idea how thrilled I was to get your letter? "I'm having a good time at camp" you wrote, and warmed my heart by saying "I miss you." 

You opted for just 4 weeks of camp, saying "If I like it, I will do the full summer next year." I feel optimistic that you will feel comfortable going for 7 weeks in 2024. Mom texted me some photos taken by the camp, warning me "These are not for social media." I can't decide if my favorite depicts you swimming in the camp pool or the one showing you atop a counselor's shoulders at gymnastics. In any event you look happy, and that makes me happy.

A few things about camp next year, if your camp is anything like the camp your Mom attended for many years, there will likely be a questionnaire asking if there's anybody from the previous year you would like to have in your bunk. No doubt you've made some good friends who will be returning to camp; you may even get together with them during the school year. The director of Mom's camp told me other girls always requested that they be put in your Mom's bunk. 

Similarly that questionnaire will ask if there's anybody you would prefer not to have in your bunk. As you know, there are kids who are just a pain in the butt, and nobody wants them in their bunk. But part of camp is developing the political skills to manage living with people you don't necessarily love, even if it's just for the summer. As your brother Jack told me when he returned home from camp last year, "I became friends with kids I didn't like before."

I agree with your camp's "no electronic devices" policy. Still I look forward to texting and FaceTiming with you the way we did before you left for the Poconos. Then you can tell me all the juicy details about your first time away from home. 

Meanwhile, I'm just so proud of you for demonstrating the independence and good social skills that enable an eight year-old who's almost nine, to thrive at camp.

Love, Bubbie