JUF News - December 19, 2007

By Adam London

Only the curious have something to find. As a young 10-year-old, leaving home and my parents for the first time, I didn’t know what to expect from overnight camp. However, as I rode the bus up to Camp Chi for the first time with my one and only friend by my side, I was excited. Nervous, but excited and curious as to what the future would bring. After the summer of my life, complete with the typical swimming, singing, and fireside bonding that camp entails, I swore I would be back at the magical place that so many people lovingly refer to as their home away from home.

Fast forward a few years to the summer of 2002, I was 13 and heading into eighth grade. Before the joys of pre-algebra and science labs hit in the fall I found myself back at my home away from home for a summer of spirit—of ruach—my summer in the unit of Habonim. Habonim means “builders” in Hebrew and the summer of 2002 built the foundation for a camping experience that to this day, as an 18-year-old college student, I still will never forget or let go of.

In Habonim, I joined a group of 11 other boys to create Cabin 2 or the “Deuce” as we jokingly referred to ourselves. Between sports and song sessions, late-night talks and sneaking out to the forbidden girls’ cabins, I grew close to each one of my friends that I lived with. There is an old camp saying that goes something like this: “From the inside looking out you can’t explain it, and from the outside looking in you can’t understand it.”

Putting a group of 13-year-old boys in one small cabin might seem like a recipe for disaster; however, as a counselor for the same age group this past summer, I have an entirely new and refreshed perspective on the reality of so many crazy energetic campers living together. Looking back, those moments and memories were some of the best times of my life. The reality of the craziness is that it falls far short of any disaster and far exceeds any expectations of a fun and exciting summer. Those cabin-mates were my brothers. Living together for a summer allowed me to develop close relationships that I didn’t even know I was capable of attaining at such a young age.

As Habonim summer came to a close, I remember sitting around a fire with the entire unit. While glowing embers drifted towards the cloudless, starlit sky, and some counselor strummed away on the guitar to the chorus of “House on Pooh Corner,” I made a pact with myself: that if ever I forgot why camp was so special, so important, and so necessary, I would think back on that moment around the fire, with my friends, and realize why I needed my home away from home so much.

More than five years removed from that fire circle I can still remember why I come back to camp and why I hold it so close to my heart. As I rode the bus up to camp my first summer heading into fifth grade, I had no idea, despite my curiosity toward camp, what the next nine years would bring. I have only left Camp Chi for two summers in my childhood, each time to explore the world and each time returning to my home away from home for the following summer. Two years ago I spent more than six weeks traveling in Israel, an experience that I treasure to this day, but then last summer, after talking to old camp friends, I decided to come back to camp for another summer as a counselor.

I keep coming back because I want my campers to see and to understand why I can proudly call Chi my home away from home. I want my boys to understand the “it” factor—to realize how special it is to share a moment with your closest friends around a fire, singing along to your favorite songs without a care or worry in mind. In a world that is often all too fast-paced and hurried, camp afforded me—and so many other people—an opportunity to learn and grow and relax in a place that often felt much more special than home, with friends who, even away at college, I still talk to daily.

Camp Chi did not make the color-wars games, song sessions, mudsliding, stargazing, late night talks, and inside jokes that campers remember for years and years. That was our work. As a friend of mine once said, it’s not the place that makes friendships, creates communities, makes us fall in love… this is our work, and, that it occurred there is what makes camp that special place, that warm spot in our hearts. That is why camp is so important and even necessary. Yes, the stories and pictures spark memories, but it’s something beyond that. It rests in the flames of a late-night campfire that keeps the ruach burning inside of everyone who has experienced, but cannot explain, the joys of being away for a summer. Camp is a place beyond definition. It is, as my friend went on to explain, a place where we found friendship, camaraderie, love…a place where we succeeded, failed, laughed, cried…a place we can remember as the place where we found our voices

Adam London, originally from Deerfield, is a freshman at the University of Michigan.
Camp Chi is affiliated with the JCC’s of Chicago.