Week 7: Project Reflection and Closure

“Don’t run, stop holding your tongue
Maybe there’s a way out of the cage where you live
Maybe one of these days you can let the light in
Show me how big your brave is

Say what you wanna say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave”

How can it possibly be week 7 already. I feel like just yesterday I was packing my stuff into the car, with butterflies all over in my stomach, and beginning the drive to this incredible place. I had wondered if this was where I belonged, but goodness did it truly affect my life.

This week we had some really cool things happen. In addition to our normal camp magic, we had two special organizations come in. Flashes of Hope, an organization “dedicated to creating powerful, uplifting portraits of children fighting cancer and other life-threatening illnesses,” came to camp this week and pulled each and every camper out to take individual photos. It was an awesome thing for them to donate to some incredible campers who truly deserve to be reminded how beautiful they are. Then, Headbands of Hope provided headbands and buff bands for every single child at camp. This is an organization that provides bands to children who are fighting cancer and have lost their hair, to remind them that they are still beautiful and to keep up their confidence level and self-esteem. Richard and Kyle Petty also were both on camp this week, and for the first time since 2005, both drove the 45 racecar around Victory Circle. It was incredible moment for everyone there to see these incredible people remind us why camp exists.

The title of this blog prompt is “project reflection and closure,” but you know what, I don’t want closure. I know this chapter of my life is ending, but there are so many aspects that I want to remain a part of me for the rest of my life. I hope I never forget the many life lessons I learned this summer, the beautiful smiling faces or the giggles of the campers, or the many ways I learned to be silly and to be me. I also know that even as I leave this place, I will be working or volunteering to help these special kids feel normal for the rest of my life. As I said in blog 1, from the outside you can’t understand it, and from the inside you can’t explain.

“We are, we are not your ordinary family
But we can all agree that
We are, we are close as close can be

So it don’t matter what it looks like we look perfect to me
We got every kind of lover; we’re so lucky indeed
They can keep on talking it don’t matter to me cause
We are, we are family

So what?
We don’t look, we don’t act
We don’t walk, we don’t talk like you do
So what?
If we hang just a hang and no shame
We both do what we want to

Cause we come from everywhere
Searching for ones to care
Somehow we found it here
We found us a home”