Summer Thoughts

Hey friends,

Despite the fact that the weather here in New Orleans has undoubtedly signaled the arrival of summer, I'm still not used to this whole no-summer-break thing. (You mean...I just keep doing the same thing I've been doing? Weird.) Regardless of what lies ahead in my summer, the beginning of the season reminds me of the countless camps that are beginning their busy season as school year happenings come to an end. On a more specific note, if you haven't guessed, I'm thinking about the two summers I spent working at Camp Grier.

If you've talked to me for more than five minutes, you've probably heard about camp. You have my apologies for the word vomit that usually happens when the topic comes up, but I promise it's with the best of intentions! It's just that Camp Grier is a special, special place. A modest Presbyterian camp nestled in the mountains of western North Carolina, it is an undeniable place of refuge for campers and counselors alike.

I only went once as a camper, I think, and word on the street is (aka Mom told me) that I criiiied and cried when my parents dropped me off. However hazy my memories of that half-week may be, though, they still exist, and they are fond ones. I remember being mildly concerned that bug juice actually contained bug parts, but that seems to have turned out alright. I remember being just a little terrified of the rope bridge that went across the lake, but according to my memory, I made it across anyway. I remember my counselors saying they were engaged. Retrospectively, I realize that that especially was probably false information. But hey, what's a summer as a camp counselor without a few falsified engagements?!

What I can say truly changed my life, all jokes aside and as cheesy as it sounds, is those two summers that I spent as a counselor. Yes, I learned the oh-so-classified secrets of bug juice and homesick pills (and I'll never tell!).  But I also got to help scared kids across the rope bridge, watch homesick kids transform every week into the most enthusiastic campers, and build relationships with my fellow counselors that I'm quite positive will be around for a very long time. Sure, I don't do the best job staying in touch with people. But if you put a bunch of us in a room together, I'd venture a guess that we'd be just fine. And no matter how long I am physically away from camp, every time I step foot on that property it will feel like I'm home. Even as I do a less than stellar job of regularly talking to my former camp coworkers, and even as those same people head to different camps (or...gasp...grown up jobs) those people and that place will always be a part of me.

In just over a week, I'll have the privilege of speaking to the summer staff at Camp Grier about the YAV program. While being a presenter at staff training makes me feel weird and grown up, I'm excited for a couple main reasons. First, I'm excited because I'll take any chance I can get to run my mouth about the YAV program, and any chance I can get to spend time in the mountains. But second, and more importantly, I am excited because the time I spent on staff at Camp Grier and the time I've spent as a YAV are without a doubt two parts of my life about which I am most passionate. There is a direct correlation between the time I spent at camp, my time as a YAV, and my decision to pursue some sort of ministry in the future. I'm not saying that every camp counselor wants or needs to go on to be a YAV and then head off to seminary. But my time on staff at Camp Grier was incredibly transformative, and as exhausted as I was ("It may be week six for you, but it's week one for the campers!"), I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. And I think once you're a camp counselor, it's something you can never really get out of your system.

So, connections to the YAV program aside, I'd encourage you to keep camp ministries of all sorts in your thoughts and prayers, as they begin their work for the summer. And consider supporting them in any way you can, whether that's financial support, sending your kid, or working or volunteering there yourself. To the camps out there: thank you. Thank you for everything you do and for the lives you change. Have a safe and happy summer!

Love,
Allison

See you soon!

The House(s) That Built Me

Well friends, I'm home. In Davidson. My year as a Nashville YAV is officially and totally over. I don't think it's really sunk in yet...seems like when I leave in less than a week I should be heading back to Nashville instead of New Orleans. (But that having been said, I'm still super stoked about heading to the Big Easy.)

In other news, my last weekend in Nashville was filled with Furman friends, due to a wedding in town. It was sort of odd, Furman people in my YAV town. But it was also so so wonderful. Most of my friends at this wedding I've known for five years. Which is crazy, if you ask me, that it's already been five years since I started college. But anyway. Despite the fact that I only really got to spend a handful of hours with most of these folks, the day reminded me of how much I truly love them. And despite the fact that I haven't seen most of them since either homecoming in October, or since graduation more than a year ago, we could still sit around and talk just like when we were in Greenville. I'm not the best at regularly talking to people that aren't in the same place as me (oops), but maybe this weekend has made me a little more motivated. 

After the wedding, one of my Furman roomies helped me pack up my stuff and kept me company for the 7.5 hours from Nashville to Davidson. After some coffee and thrift store shopping the next morning, I drove her back to Greenville. I remember thinking, when I went to homecoming, that it was weird being in Greenville and not being a Furman student. It's still just as weird. But we got dinner in at my favorite Greenville restaurant, did some bowling, and had breakfast at another favorite eatery of mine. Then it was back to Davidson for me, where I've gotten to spend some time with high school friends, and I've even seen a couple camp folk. At some point I s'pose I should unpack and re-pack so I can leave on Tuesday. But that's besides the point.

The point is that all this hopping around and seeing all these different groups of friends is that I know some pretty stellar people. The friends I made in middle school, now we can go with our moms to trivia night at the wine room. The friends I made during those oh-so-important college years are still people I hold close to my heart, and the camp friends that gave me a faith community I didn't even know I needed will forever be a part of my life. Then here come the YAV friends, from Nashville and soon from New Orleans, that have transformed me even more. 

On my drive back from Greenville a Miranda Lambert song called "The House That Built Me" came on the playlist I was listening to (a year in Nashville'll do that to ya). If you haven't heard it: in it Miranda Lambert talks all about a childhood home and how she's trying to find herself again, there. I don't feel so much like I need to re-find myself in the five days I have left in Davidson (five days! AH!), but I do think that all of these places I've met my friends (and family) have a large part in who I am today. And whether or not I talk to all of those people on a regular basis, that fact will always be true. I really don't think all the rambling in the world could express how truly thankful I am for that. 

Thanks anyway, though, dear friends and family, for being the houses that built me. Let's stay friends, yeah?

Love,

Allison

Down In the Valley

My oh my has it been a busy two weeks, friends!

First, I left Nashville a couple weeks ago and headed for Montreat to lead a small group during the second week of this summer's youth conferences. Just like college conference back in January, this was my first youth conference at Montreat. Not on purpose really...we were just always busy when my church's youth group went. But, anyway. It was such a wonderful experience. I spent 3 hours a day leading a small group of 26 high school youth. Some discussion of keynotes and such, some just hanging out and having fun, some eating Dunkaroos (thanks, Black Mountain Dollar General). And as it turns out spending a couple summers as a camp counselor is excellent preparation for small group leading. Seriously though, I met so many wonderful/enthusiastic/inspiring youth, and on top of that met some awesome fellow small group leaders, made some YAV connections, spent some time with friends from Davidson, and got my fill of energizers (not that there's such a thing as too many of those...). And I mean, I tell ya. These conferences I keep going to keep directly applying to my life. Wondering Wanders? Searching For the Signal? Sheesh, Montreat.

From there I headed down the road to camp. Camp was...so so wonderful. But weird. Wonderful to see many of my close friends that are still on staff there, but weird to not be on staff with them. I was one of the first aid folks for the week, so I didn't get to do a ton of camp-y stuff, but I did have a thoroughly entertaining sea weed (or...lake weed?) battle with some 8 year olds in canoes on Lake Refuge. And I learned a new blessing. If you're interested in blessing your food a la Sponge Bob Squarepants, you just let me know. It really was wonderful though. Lovely to see the people I already knew and fun to meet some new ones. Hard to leave yet again, but I've got some more thoughts on that coming later.

Annnd approximately 7 hours after I got home to Davidson from camp, Mom and I were on our way to Ohio, from whence we'll be heading to Michigan tomorrow. I was telling my mom in the car ride up here that I feel like a lot of great/difficult/meaningful things have happened in the last two weeks, but I'm not quite sure I've had the time to process it all. So, we'll see what ends up on this here blog in the coming weeks. There's the last two weeks, and then the fact that when I get back to Tennessee in a week I'll have just one more month left in Nashville. After that, a week and a half in Davidson and it's off to New Orleans! I s'pose one day maybe I'll be in one place for a while...

Love,
Allison.

On the road again...

Come Saturday, I'll be heading back to the homeland (aka North Carolina) for three-ish weeks. I'm fortunate enough to have two weeks of "service to the greater church" built into my job description, largely because of the fact that most of PSF's students are gone for the summer. Workin' my way down I-40 I'm going to lead a small group at the Montreat youth conference next week, then a few miles down the road I'll spend a week volunteering at camp. After that I'll be using my remaining vacation days to go on a family reunion in Michigan.

I've realized that I have really mixed feelings about these upcoming adventures. Don't get me wrong, I'm eagerly awaiting rounding a curve on the interstate and catching my first glimpse of the North Carolina mountains, and getting to spend two weeks there. And I genuinely enjoy spending time with family (which I count as a major blessing). But I've also become quite attached to Nashville. And the other day I realized that, taking into account my upcoming traveling, I essentially have one month left in Nashville. One. That's not very long. At all.

And things will be different this time around, in the mountains. Montreat is familiar enough, but this will be my first time at a youth conference and I'm responsible for a small group. My only time spent at camp has been when I was on staff (not counting the half-week I went for way back in like 1995), and this time I'll be just a volunteer for the week. Seven days is a lot less than two months.

Adding to the strangeness of this year's camp experience, today I learned that camp's Site Supervisor (aka Maintenance Magician) passed away last night. Besides the fact that I'm pretty sure Dennis could fix anything that broke ever, he always just drove camp from project to project in his red truck waving and smiling and making friends. Surely something will feel a little off at camp this summer. For a long time probably, because Dennis, if you ask me, is a pretty irreplaceable person. Dennis, if you're reading blogs up there in heaven, we love you and we'll miss you so much. Thanks for being a wonderful person and for everything you did for camp. And to whoever happens to read this: please just keep Dennis' family in your thoughts and/or prayers, and throw a few prayers in the direction of the Camp Grier family and this year's summer staff as they start the summer off on this sad note.

All that said, as I mentioned in the beginning I think I'll still love my time in North Carolina and Michigan...I just didn't anticipate having such mixed emotions, I guess. Someone told me once, just a few weeks after I'd moved here, that I would fall in love with Nashville. And I'm fairly certain he was right.

We'll see how it goes, this processing that's going on right now. Not being ready to leave, but knowing how important to me the places I'm visiting are. Maybe I'm just getting ahead of myself, too. I do have all of July and a week of August to soak up Nashville after these upcoming adventures...

Love,
Allison