Becasue I knew you...

My two weeks with camp Moomba were by far the most trying experience I have had to date. It was also the most enriching and eye opening one. I cried A LOT with this group but I also laughed so hard I would snort, licked ketchup off of a table and ate oreos off of my forehead with them, chased geese up and down the field and stayed up way too late drinking hot chocolate and star gazing with them too. This group pushed me to my limit, but I pushed them as well. They had never sailed before. They each taught their cabin how. They had never played Ga Ga ball. Now its their favorite game. They canoed for three hours and made the most impressive straw tower I have seen from a leadership group so far. I tell them everyday how much I appreciate what they have taught me. And I want to make sure that they continue to inspire their peers to do the same.

Rakiya asked me if I would come back next year. If she had asked me this question a week ago I would probably have said never. Now I feel like it would be wrong not to. Though I can not come back to Canada for a whole summer as a counselor again or as a YPN volunteer, I am surprised to think about reserving one or two weeks out of my summer next year to come back. I have become part of an incredible family. Families fight and bicker and yell and scream. We certainly have done that. But they also stand up for each other and support each other no matter what. There is nothing I wouldn't do for this group, and that doesn't change just because camp is over.

There are no words to describe these past two weeks. And when I am at a loss for words I find that there is a songwriter out there who has the right ones. This one happens to come from Wicked...

"I've heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true
But I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you

Like a comet pulled from orbit
As it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder
Halfway through the wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you
I have been changed for good"