Comments on: One time at [blank] camp http://www.clintharvey.net/20100710/one-time-at-blank-camp/ everything you never wanted to know about Clint Sat, 24 Jul 2010 07:05:31 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4-alpha-19719 By: Erus/Dusty http://www.clintharvey.net/20100710/one-time-at-blank-camp/comment-page-1/#comment-29 Erus/Dusty Sat, 24 Jul 2010 07:05:31 +0000 http://www.clintharvey.net/?p=474#comment-29 I actually listened to the that episode, and a ton of things rang true. I went to two types of camps growing up, boy scout camp and TN's Governor School. The former wasn't quite a good match for the episode as you go and mostly interact with people you already know.<br><br>Gov. School, however, was probably the defining experience of my formative years. It's a month-long camp with top science kids from all over the state. It has a mix of classes and social activities. Due to growing up in a small town, it was the first time I actually wasn't the outlier on the geeky scale and exposed me to more foreign cultures/religions/whatever that I'd seen in the previous 16 years.<br><br>One of the biggest things that struck home was that you take all these stories back and your "non-camp" friends just can't relate. One girl from my school got to go as well, and suddenly we were telling inside jokes/stories/etc. all the time, making everyone else absolutely sick of it. <br><br>As soon as I was old enough, I went back to be a counselor and did it every summer I was in college, save the year it was canceled due to a state budget crisis, including being head counselor my last year. Those summers were probably the most fun of my life. I met my wife there (she was a former student and the TA for one of the classes) and we were hardly the only GSS-derived couple I know. And i still have friends from there I'm in contact with over 10 years later. Perhaps more awesomely, each year I got to watch a bunch of nerdy, shy, awkward kids come into their own like I had. Best tax dollars ever spent.<br>-Erus/Dusty I actually listened to the that episode, and a ton of things rang true. I went to two types of camps growing up, boy scout camp and TN's Governor School. The former wasn't quite a good match for the episode as you go and mostly interact with people you already know.

Gov. School, however, was probably the defining experience of my formative years. It's a month-long camp with top science kids from all over the state. It has a mix of classes and social activities. Due to growing up in a small town, it was the first time I actually wasn't the outlier on the geeky scale and exposed me to more foreign cultures/religions/whatever that I'd seen in the previous 16 years.

One of the biggest things that struck home was that you take all these stories back and your “non-camp” friends just can't relate. One girl from my school got to go as well, and suddenly we were telling inside jokes/stories/etc. all the time, making everyone else absolutely sick of it.

As soon as I was old enough, I went back to be a counselor and did it every summer I was in college, save the year it was canceled due to a state budget crisis, including being head counselor my last year. Those summers were probably the most fun of my life. I met my wife there (she was a former student and the TA for one of the classes) and we were hardly the only GSS-derived couple I know. And i still have friends from there I'm in contact with over 10 years later. Perhaps more awesomely, each year I got to watch a bunch of nerdy, shy, awkward kids come into their own like I had. Best tax dollars ever spent.
-Erus/Dusty

]]> By: Ian http://www.clintharvey.net/20100710/one-time-at-blank-camp/comment-page-1/#comment-28 Ian Sun, 11 Jul 2010 02:59:46 +0000 http://www.clintharvey.net/?p=474#comment-28 I went to Boy Scout Camp growing up and absolutely loved it. It was a bit different than your experience in that I had the same group of friends from scouting who would go each year too. But it was an escape, and now having kids of my own and looking back, I feel sort of sorry for the counselors and adults who worked at the camp. Herding a pack of semi-feral boys away from their world for a week must have been awful.<br><br>But I loved it because I got to do things that I never did at home. I learned CPR, orienteering, snorkeling, stuff that was fun and I didn't have the opportunity to do normally. Archery, shooting black powder, hatchet throwing, things my mom would've balked at.<br><br>We send our daughter to camp now, this will be her 4th year going. I hope she gets to experience new things and meet people she wouldn't normally. Like you, its a new group of people every year, she doesn't have a group of regulars and gets to be someone new. I went to Boy Scout Camp growing up and absolutely loved it. It was a bit different than your experience in that I had the same group of friends from scouting who would go each year too. But it was an escape, and now having kids of my own and looking back, I feel sort of sorry for the counselors and adults who worked at the camp. Herding a pack of semi-feral boys away from their world for a week must have been awful.

But I loved it because I got to do things that I never did at home. I learned CPR, orienteering, snorkeling, stuff that was fun and I didn't have the opportunity to do normally. Archery, shooting black powder, hatchet throwing, things my mom would've balked at.

We send our daughter to camp now, this will be her 4th year going. I hope she gets to experience new things and meet people she wouldn't normally. Like you, its a new group of people every year, she doesn't have a group of regulars and gets to be someone new.

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