Another Great Day on the Mountain
For Tuesday’s Morning Watch, Zaki shared a story from his time in 7th grade. “I had just arrived at the classroom that morning, and everyone was whispering and looking around,” he began. “The clock was on the floor, and the glass face had shattered. When our teacher arrived, he asked everyone, ‘who broke the clock?’, but no one said anything. There was silence after he asked again, so he told us, ‘well, I’ll have to give the whole class detention if no one owns up to it.’” Zaki said that suddenly, his friend Jack raised his hand and said, “I did it.” The teacher just replied, “see me after class,” and began the lesson.
However, Zaki explained how his classmates were still looking around confused, and it became obvious that Jack wasn’t the one who actually broke the clock. When the period was over and class dismissed, he waited outside for his friend. All the teacher said was, “you didn’t do it, did you?”, and let him go. Jack had been willing to sacrifice himself for his class, so the whole group didn’t have to sit in detention. Zaki said that he and his classmates never forgot that, and were always inspired to look out for each other the way Jack had looked after them.
Zaki finished his story by explaining how it’s not about looking out for just your friends. Jack stood up for the whole class, which included people he wasn’t necessarily good buddies with. “Think in these last few days of camp, who you can look out for, and how you can be a good friend to everyone,” Zaki encouraged.
After saying the pledge, everyone headed to the Dining Hall for breakfast: sausage, english muffins with cream cheese and jam, yogurt and granola, and oatmeal. During Morning Assembly, Nemo led a throwback song with CJ and James, called “Fleasta.” This is a classic “repeat after me” song from the 80s that many know from Terry Tyree performing on the front porch years ago. Afterwards, we sang Rocky Top and Dust on My Saddle before listening to announcements for the day.
We’ve had many campers achieve Ranger and Warrior during this session, and many more are trying to finish up final projects or achievements to reach these levels in the final week. I sat next to Dasher at Morning Assembly, who decided to go for the level of Warrior in Cross Country halfway through the session. To reach Warrior, you must run 100 miles in a single session, so he had a lot of catching up to do. A little over a week ago he was at 40 miles, so I asked him how close he was now. “I only have 3 miles left!” he exclaimed. He was excited about finishing the mileage that morning during his first periods.
By lunch, the drizzly weather that threatened rain all morning had blown away, revealing a sunny afternoon. We enjoyed hot ham and cheese sliders for lunch, with creamy dill potato salad, pineapple, watermelon, and M&M cookies for dessert. After a quiet rest hour to recharge, we jumped into afternoon activities. We were shooting baskets in the gym, playing rounds of disc golf, cooking omelettes at the F.A.R.M., revealing the finished tie dye shirts at arts and crafts, sparking flint and steel fires at OSC, working on trails and riding mountain bikes, woodburning signs and making awards in woodworking, playing soccer on the field, reaching the top of the climbing wall, sailing on Lake Summit, riding horses in the ring, and more. It’s hard to believe that yesterday and today are the final two full activity days at camp, since tomorrow we’ll be doing the Ironman Triathlon for part of the day and packing. Everyone was getting as much done in their activities as possible yesterday, and will be finishing up their final projects today!
After dinner last night, we split into Lines for Evening Program to play games in the gym, lodge, courts, and field. Today is a big day, with the annual Horse Show in the morning for our dedicated riders, the opportunity to assist with a legacy project and finish building the new orchard trail in the afternoon, our last trips of the session returning from their adventures, and a final chance to work on progressions all day. Tonight’s Evening Program is also a big deal, since it’s Field Day, which will be the final chance to earn points for the Green and Gold teams. They’re both very close at the moment, with Gold leading by only 30 points! We can’t wait to see all the excitement today, and we’ll tell you all about it tomorrow!