I woke up to the sun shining through the windows, birds chirping and a smile on my face. I was at Canoe Cove Christian Camp, which only happens to be my absolute favourite place on earth! Clearly, I’m not the only one that loves camp a lot, because about 87% of campers who have attended a summer camp in the past 5 summers say that it is the highlight of their summer, and wouldn’t ever think of missing it.

“Camp is a place of fun, community, and worship. It has been the highlight of my summer for eleven years because of the people and the fun and accepting atmosphere” -Mollie T. (camp counsellor)

Before breakfast each morning, we always have a team challenge with our team of 6-8 campers. Whenever we were lucky, it would be something like “reorganize your team’s line from youngest to oldest without talking”. Therefore, it didn’t take much brain power from our still sleepy minds. Then, it’s breakfast time! We would all be drooling waiting to eat the heavenly scented cinnamon rolls that you could smell from our cabins, delicious muffins, and pancakes soaked with syrup like a sponge that has reached its limit.

After breakfast we have what the counsellors call “games”. But let me tell you, it’s not even close to games! Curious about what I’m talking about? I’m talking about chores, and each team is assigned one for the day, to be done after each meal. You could be “playing” Maintenance Madness which includes sweeping and mopping the chapel while dancing around the room to music like “All Star” by Smash Mouth. 

We then have Cabin Cleanup, which is a TOTAL cabin rivalry! Everyone tries to outdo each other, and to also make sure that their cabin is as memorable as possible once it comes time for videos.The videos consist of a couple of counsellors touring the rooms and evaluating them to see who had the cleanest one, while filming the whole thing! 60% of the campers actually made an effort to clean because they wanted to have the bragging rights, then there’s the other 40% that messes the whole thing up on purpose. Care to guess who that would be?  *Cough* *cough* boys.One day they had even taken a stuffed toy, and hung it to the ceiling by their own boxers! When we watched that part of the video later that night, everyone started laughing so hysterically it sounded like a gang of hyenas.

After Cabin Cleanup, we would then proceed to the chapel upstairs, listen to a talk, and have group time to discuss some aspects of the talk. Usually, we did some pretty silly things like wiggling all around the room and screaming at the top of our lungs just so that we could say we did. After group time, we then had free time. Let me tell you, Canoe Cove is not like other camps that have rock climbing walls, archery or a WIBIT (an inflatable water playground), but, we do have a beach volley-ball court, and that’s all we need! Every single time there’s Free Time during High School Camp, there is always an intense game of volley-ball with half of the camp wanting to play. There are also some people that find it quite entertaining to table top each other or take them out at the knees while playing, therefore you always have to watch for two things: the ball, and someone trying to sneak attack you.The worst part is that it’s usually the counsellors behind 75% of the attacks, which means you’ve got pretty much no chance!

Then, we hear the dreaded music blasting from a speaker on the front porch telling us that Free Time is over and it’s time for a lunch challenge, which could be something like recreating a Disney scene. They usually turn out to be extremely hilarious where everyone is doubled over laughing.  We then have a delicious meal like lasagna while we all gather around big tables and reminisce on the funny parts of the morning, shove food in each other’s faces simply for the fun of it, or get to know some new friends. The meal is then followed by the counsellor’s so called “games”. The Bathroom Battlefield the most popular “game” where everyone’s hard at work scrubbing toilets, shinning mirrors, or cleaning the showers, all trying to win the title of Royal Flush. Royal Flush is given to the camper that has put the most effort into cleaning and is awarded a Burger King crown with a mini mop as a staff. What our parents would do to get us to clean like that at home!

We then have quiet time during which everyone goes to their rooms and either sleeps, or in my cabins case, play the card game called President. Following that, we have tuck (snack) where counsellors hand out Caramilk bars, skittles, KitKat, and chips that we quickly eat so that we can get to the beach ASAP. At the beach, most people will swim out to a raft to jump off of, others will wade casually, and others will simply sit on the beach enjoying the sun. Since the beach is on the south side of PEI, the water feels nice and warm on your skin, only a small amount of jellyfish are present, and plenty of sea glass for beach wanderers to find.  

For the next bit after the beach, we have one more meal challenge, and then supper. There’s always one day that week that we will have a nice big turkey dinner with all of the trimmings. It’s always so good that a lot of people end up feeling sick after eating so much just like on thanksgiving! Once again we have another “game”, one last glorious game of volleyball, and then sword drills. Sword drills is when a counsellor names a Bible verse that we all have to look up in our Bibles, and the first team to have everyone standing up with the right verse wins that round. Since we have male counsellors that are just as mature as little boys, we can always count on having a funny verse which could be something like Judges 3:21-22 :

Ehud reached with his left hand, pulled out the dagger strapped
to his right thigh, and plunged it into the king’s belly. The dagger
went so deep that the handle disappeared beneath the king’s fat.
So Ehud did not pull out the dagger, and the king’s bowels emptied.

After having a good laugh about the verses that came up, we all go to the chapel to sing about five songs of praise to God like: “We Believe by Newsboys” or “Everlasting God by Jeremy Camp”. When you stand there singing your heart out and you look around you, you can see everyone giving their all to God and it is one of the most beautiful things at camp. We then follow worship with the best tuck ever! It tastes like a little piece of heaven in your mouth. Everyone’s favourite is the s’more bar that is as big as your fist, full of chocolate and marshmallows, and is extremely hard to get the sticky goop off your hands!

Afterwards, there’s always a fire where we sing silly camp songs with lyrics such as “Tarzan was swinging on a rubber band and crashed into a frying pan. Now Tarzan’s got a tan” and “my mama don’t wear no socks”. Then comes the most serious part of the night. Counsellors give their testimony of how they came to grow in their faith. Most of the time, the messages are so powerful or sad, that when you look around, all of the girl’s eyes are filled with moisture and you could hear a pin drop it’s so quiet. Other times, the message hits home so hard that campers have to leave and they retreat to their cabins to cry and talk to a counsellor. Those are the nights you never forget and that you keep close to your heart.

We then have what everyone looks forward to…Night Games. These are basically games where campers run around chasing each other while counsellors chase THEM with pool noodles! They are more or less giving a chance to the counsellors to “abuse” us.  

Over 85% of the campers come back each year to reconnect with their friends, and just as Halen said, to be themselves. As Halen, one of my counsellors said, “Camp is a place where most people feel they can finally be themselves. It’s a place where they know they are loved and accepted for being exactly who they are and because of that, it is a place where people grow into the people they want to be.” It is a place where you feel so at home that the older campers always joke about having a boarding school there so that you never have to leave! When you do leave, you’re so sad that you plug in your headphones, stare out the window, and reminisce on all of the absolutely incredible things that happened that week (while imagining that you’re in a melodramatic music video). You can almost feel your heart dropping in your chest, and an incredibly empty feeling sets into your stomach. The saddest realisation you get suddenly surfaces; reality is running fast to catch up to you to slap you in the face.