People often ask how the Cayuga staff “puts up” with the youngest, messiest, wildest group of boys each summer, and then comes back for more the next year. Reflecting on my fourth and likely final year as a Cayuga general counselor, I am trying to put into words what has brought me back to Cayuga year after year. There was a time at the beginning of this past school year when I considered the option of being a specialist. I was thinking that a change of pace, a new challenge would serve me well this summer. But I could not move on; I could not leave this village that I have grown to love. And now, sitting at home after another indescribable summer, I am confident that I made the right choice.
The change of pace I was looking for this summer could be found simply within the boundaries of Cayuga. Each day with these boys is a new challenge and a new adventure. As counselors of the youngest campers, we have the special opportunity to inspire and to teach these boys who are so willing to ask, to learn, and to love. I do not think that they will ever know how much they teach us as staff members. Working in Cayuga is undoubtedly a lesson in patience. Yes, they ask us a hundred questions a minute, sometimes do the opposite of what they are being asked to do, and still snicker at a fart joke or the card game BS. But it is this curiosity and eagerness for life that is infectious. They remind us to laugh at ourselves, to question the world around us, and to find joy in the smallest things—fromthe sandbox to a Superman coloring book or a game of war.
August 2013 was my first session working with the youngest campers in C-1. While initially hesitant, I can say that these last three weeks have been the most meaningful to me as a staff member. I saw seven campers come off the bus the first day who had no existing relationships to each other or to camp (besides the two twins). Yesterday, I saw the bunk all tear up in the dining hall for our final breakfast—a sight I was not entirely expecting from these boys. What is special about the youngest bunk is that all of the goals of the camp program and experience are magnified. At CSL, we want our campers to learn, to make new friends, to gain confidence, and most importantly to love camp. In three weeks, I saw my campers go from complete strangers to best friends, learn to sail or to do box-stitch with boondoggle, and have the confidence to do a solo act in front of the entire camp at campstock. In my opinion, tears on the last day of camp are most significant and revealing from the youngest, first time campers. It means that I have done my job, that Cayuga has done its job, and that camp has done its job in just three short weeks.
So to answer the initial question: we do not “put up” with these boys. We laugh with, we learn from, we grow with, and we love these boys. Sure they are messy and wild, but ultimatelythey are kids, and this is precisely the reason I have returned to Cayuga four summers in a row. As I get closer and closer to facing the real world after graduating college next year, the most important lesson I can take away from these campers and this village is to never forget how to be a kid. And the memories I have taken away as a Cayuga staff member will ensure just that.
Isaac Messina, Cayuga counselor 2010-2013
