Culture Shock

    My fourth summer at Camp Otterbein is over.  And it was one heck of a summer!  I went on amazing adventures exploring caves, rappelling, kayaking, seeing new parts of Ohio and Kentucky, off-roading in a 15 passenger van, and so much more.  I touched the lives of children/adolescents/preteens and helped them grow spiritually (especially during the last week with campers when I was a counselor).  I made new friends and rekindled/strengthened existing friendships.  Staff closing (where we clean up camp and then do a fun surprise activity each evening) was magical as usual. 

a night in Columbus with Camp Otterbein staff

    Going back to the outside world gives me a feeling that can best be described as culture shock: it feels similar to when I've come home from my travels to foreign countries.  Except this involves more tears: I already really miss everyone.  I was living in a place where I was fed, given a shelter, and everyone lived with a sense of community and the duty to just do the right thing at all times.  The outside world is full of greed, corruption, judgmental people, and just plain rude people: all the things we avoid at camp.

     There are also wonderful things in the outside world: my fiance, family, the ability to eat more food (I don't get nearly enough at camp to keep up with my freakish metabolism), time to breathe.  I also signed up for every available shift at the challenge course for the months of August and September, so there's that to look forward to.  We're visiting Ray's family and then my family over the next couple of weeks too.  I'll talk about all of the things we're doing in Medina in my next post.  :-)