"I light the Pillar of Experience"

“I Light the Pillar of Experience ”  by 7 Year Camper, Coral. This week we bring you a Campfire Speech from the 2016 Season.   At the closing of each session, campers and staff gather to reflect on the true meaning of camp.   Pillar torches are lit and campers speak on a chosen topic.   It is an honor to be selected to give a speech.    This speech is from Coral, a 13 year old camper, who spoke on the experience and meaning of being at Circle F.   I’ve been going to this camp for 7 years so I have had many experiences and I hope there will be many more to come.  Since I started coming here I feel like I’ve grown as a person in many ways.  The different activities and ides that we have here at camp help make us stronger and better as a whole.   For example, RIPPLE pushes us to do good, inside and outside of camp.  I think that it’s a great way to make us see that there is so much we can do for ourselves and the others around us.  Even the simplest things like complimenting someone on something they said or did.   That small thing could lead to many possibilities you wouldn’t even know could happen unless you tried it.  To me, camp is like my home away from home!  I can go away for a year and when I come back it feels like I never even left.  The bonds that you create here with the different campers and counselors really bring everyone together in a way that nowhere else could.  I really think that the fact that we don’t have phones plays a big part in that.   In a way, you feel really isolated from the rest of the world, but it also motivates you to talk to people in person and get to know them on a higher level that you wouldn’t get to do if you were just texting.   This place is very special to me and I know that I will always feel safe.   It is here that I can be my normal self because I know there are so many other people here just like me who come here to have a blast and not worry about what others think about you.    Circle F has brought me so much joy over these past years and I have no idea what I would do without it,  because this camp is the best place in the whole universe.