What’s your summer camp?
Transcript
What’s your Summer Camp?
Last week I spent a weekend in the NC mountains doing a bunch of random fun stuff like hunting down a white squirrel and yoga poses under waterfalls. I also got to experience this really amazing guitar concert that was the culmination of a week long guitar camp at the Brevard music Center. There were some big name musicians who participated in the concert. (Molly Tuttle was my favorite)
Basically this was like the talent show at the end of Dirty Dancing…except good. All those artists were the camp counselors for about 100 up and coming guitar students. It was really cool.
But it got me thinking about summer camp.
When I was a kid I went to girl scout camp for a week one summer. And the only thing I really liked about it was the horse part. That’s all I really wanted to do and girl scout camp was the only way I could get to do it at the time.
But last weekend I witnessed a summer camp for mostly grown ups with intense interest playing the guitar.
If it was yoga we would call it a week long intensive. Maybe a retreat. And we would weigh the cost/benefit of the continuing education and whether or not the credits are pre approved. Probably because that sounds better to adults. As adults we need to justify taking a week out of our real world to indulge ourselves in our passion. That thing we love to do that’s only for ourselves.
Oh sure there might be family vacations. But how many of those were adult centered? We’ve taken a couple of pretty epic family vacations. One to Disney and another camping for 10 days in Yellowstone. Both were absolutely amazing. But both were absolutely designed with the kids in mind and we had fun too.
I will share with you that I spent months (not exaggerating) after my kids graduated and moved out of the house, trying to remember what I liked to do. Trying to rediscover what it was I was passionate about. I literally couldn’t remember. I had spent so much of my adult life suppressing or ignoring my own needs in favor of the kids and husband that I forgot who I was. And in the meantime I became someone else. That someone was pretty serious about everything.
In fact I have to work a little harder than most I think to just relax and have fun. I’m not sure why that is but I think it might have something to do with the type A planner in me. That makes it a little hard to go with the flow sometimes. I’m trying to be a little better about it.
So that begs the question, how do you have fun as an adult? I suppose that’s as individual as the person. But that’s the beauty of a summer camp. Usually there's lots of different stuff to do. You get to swim in the lake. Make something in the craft shack. Go canoeing or kayaking, maybe a little fishing. Definitely go hiking or a snipe hunt. Maybe you learn something new like building a fire. Sing songs, tell stories and sleep under the stars. Trail rides on ponies that always know the way back to the barn. Archery, ziplines, and climbing trees.
And all that stuff, even though you’re doing it with other people you’re learning about yourself too. Some of it you might hate. But some of it might light you up inside. Some of it might feed you.
Kids need that kind of thing growing up. The kinds of things that are hard enough that when you get through it you say to yourself “if I can do that I can do anything”. Things where they can just be who they are. Things where they can laugh and play and be ridiculous without judgement.
As adults we need that too. Especially if we didn't get enough of it when we were young. So I thought it might be fun to create a summer long summer camp for myself. Make a list of summer campish kinds of activities and try to check them off by the end of the summer.
Like cook dinner over an open fire, take an art class (my neighbor teaches pottery classes so that might be fun), have a sing along, kayak or canoe sometime, nap in a hammock, catch a fish, hike a new trail, actually go camping in a tent, taking a random day off even if it means skipping a podcast upload.Probably some cake decorating too. Flag down the icecream truck for an afternoon treat.
All that stuff sounds great to me but there is one very important requirement in order for it to count. And that’s for each and everyone of them and any others that pop up on the list, has to be done unapologetically in the moment and without any expectation of any kind of result. In other words it doesn’t have to end up being fun as long as it might be that counts. Learning new things and nurturing your inner child is the whole point. So fair warning to future guests, if we’re in an interview and the ice cream truck comes by I may need a break.
It’s difficult to enjoy any kind of break or vacation if in order to go you double your work load for the 3 weeks before and after in order to get ahead or catch up.That’s what happened the week before we went out of town. I crammed 5 days of work into 2 and we were only gone for 4 days. Pretty sure that math doesn’t work.
So summer camp is my own personal challenge this year. If you’re into it too and want to join me I’ll be posting random live videos on facebook and IG (maybe) about the stuff I’m doing. I’d love to see how your summer of campiness turns out!
In the spirit of summer camp I’ll be backing off my podcast uploads a bit to give myself (and you) some space to breathe. So relax and enjoy the replays of some of the best podcast episodes as well as some fun new ones throughout the summer.
Thanks for joining me today on The Work IN if you like what you heard and you want to learn a little more head over to Savagegracecoaching.com and click the free resources tab or schedule a free consultation with me to learn how trauma release works and could help you shake off stress tension and anxiety. Now go have fun and I’ll see you next time. Is that the ice cream truck I hear?
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