Today began with making breakfast for the ski group, and then calling all the campers who came last summer, but aren't yet registered for camp this summer. The day also involved me wearing a sash made of an extension cord (gotta love camp fashion), and baking lots of cookies for the photo contest winner and the LINK exhibition. Kelsey, the program director for the summer, came up to Sonlight today, and it was really fun to hear all of her ideas for the summer. Her energy and fresh ideas about summer resident camp really brought a lot of light to camp, and it was so much fun to have her. After Kelsey left, I helped Mary make dinner for the ski group, and their sincere appreciation and thankfulness were so encouraging. Heather and I drove back to Durango this evening, conversing about the beautiful moments the past weeks have held. Heather is an amazing friend, mentor, cook, designer, camp director, and all of those other fifty-eight things she does. She is amazing and has inspired me each day. Despite the craziness of everything the past few weeks have held, and that was happening today, I took some advice from of the Dove chocolate wrapper that said: "slow down. enjoy the moment." These three weeks flew by. The amount I have grown and learned is indescribable. The days were filled with tea drinking, kitchen mess making, hair cutting, wood-stove stoking, cheese making, song singing, snow-creature building, summer planning and lots of laughing. And in all of the madness, it has been such a blessing to stop. A blessing to look around and feel a wave of gratitude, of love, of pure awe about such an amazing experience rushing over you, as you look back on the beautiful memories that have been made. 

"Love the Madness."

Someone commented to me about how they were reading my blog, and they informed me "all you do is laugh." It is true. There is something about this raw expression of joy that radiates. It is a universal language, an undignified form of communication. It is a priceless sound of happiness, one that connects people together. The past three weeks I think that I have laughed more than I have in the past year. Camp is just that way. It makes you realize that joy is victorious. Today over many hysterical laughs, I helped serve breakfast, worked on my LINK project, listened to staff interviews, worked on my intro encouragement post, updated the camp blog about the photo contest winners, helped Heather with merchandise, added to the Pulse roles, and helped cook dinner for the ski group. Through it all, the laughter never ceased.

Don't forget to laugh.

Ever since I first heard about the internship program, I have been excited for internships. Each day I still wake up excited. I look back on all of my writing previous to my internship, and it makes me laugh, because I had no idea what was awaiting me. I thought that I knew what was ahead. But now I am here. I am immersed in the experience. I am actively growing and learning. I wake up excited for each morning because each day at Sonlight is unpredictable. Unpredictable means I woke at 5:38am when a little dog named Tope came in and jumped on top of me. I walked about ten feet from my cabin to the kitchen at 5:45am to help breakfast for the ski group. I had a cup of coffee with a little extra sugar to keep me awake and alive for the day ahead. I helped serve breakfast, and then went to help identify a strange smell in one of the cabins. I wrapped up the birthday postcard, finalized the three nalgene designs, helped Heather work on merchandise, listened to a phone interview with a potential staff member, worked on my project, helped make staff intro videos, and make dinner. I was a stylist in the camp staff "salon" to help cut hair, and I was the official churro maker.  It's not your average job. I suppose I have come to see things like standing on a ladder and sniffing around for a strange smell as normal. I realize my daily updates probably seem ridiculous. But I like it. I actually love it. I love that each day I can wake up and have a day ahead of me full of hot fudge explosions, afternoon breaks with Jillian Michaels, dogs jumping on top of me to wake me up, hair trimming, and being in crazy videos. I love that my stomach hurts from laughing so hard, and that I am exhausted from serving after each long, beautiful day. 

I love that it is so unpredictable.

Last night I came up to camp, excited for the ski group that is here this week. Today was a lot of preparing for their arrival. I put together deli trays for their sack lunches, made rice krispie treats for them, and helped Mary make dinner for them. Dinner was pushed back almost two hours because the group was running a bit late, but we made it work, and stay flexible. Before all of the cooking began, Heather and I headed into town to deliver Sonlight brochures to churches, schools and local businesses in Pagosa. Marketing and promoting camp is another big part of her job. After delivering brochures we went to City Market to get groceries for the group this week. We headed back to camp because Heather had some more interviews with prospective staff. It has been neat to experience the staff hiring process- everything from listening to interviews, to seeing those people hired. While Heather was interviewing I worked on compiling the photo contest results, putting more specific goals and tasks for Pulse members, and worked on writing postcards to new campers. My office time also included updating the camp instagram, looking at some new merchandise designs for the camp store, and working a bit more on the birthday postcard. It was a day full of many different tasks, some seemingly a bit random. Nonetheless I enjoyed every bit, and it all plays into a bigger picture.


Each and every project is unified by one thing- it is all for the campers.

This morning Heather and I met up and headed to Columbine Christian School. It is a small school, bubbling with energy, enthusiasm and joy. The students were so energetic, lively and hilarious to be around. Friday is their Chapel day, so after singing along with some fun songs, Heather and I went up to talk to the kiddos about camp. We planned to show a video and hand out candy, but the projector was broken, and we forgot about the candy. But we didn't let the chaos stop us from talking about the summer camp we share a passion for. It was a morning full of spontaneity, and we made it work. After leaving some brochures for the kids, we headed downtown to talk about nalgene designs, the Sonlight Pulse, staff hiring, Sonlight store merchandise, and this summer over blueberry pancakes. Previous to the Columbine Christian visit, I was talking with Rachael about our internships. All day I have been thinking about this conversation, awe-struck by such an amazing opportunity. I have been overwhelmed by how each of my peers and I have found the place where our puzzle piece fits, the thing that makes us come alive. I am a different person than when I started my internship. These first two weeks have gone  by so quickly, and I have made so much growth. I find myself lost for words when I try and tell people about how much I love my internship. And so at a loss for words, I try to express my excitement for this discovery of where I belong. I belong with kids. I am passionate about being with them, teaching them, laughing with them, and loving them. My goal is to not let this passion stop when I am outside of my internship, but let this newly found love infuse itself into each moment. I work at a restaurant, and so tonight I talked to a lot of the little kids who came in. I told one sweet little girl about how cool I thought her unicorn was and she came up and gave me a big hug. Another little girl who I waved at and talked to in bits and pieces throughout the night started blowing me kisses as she walked out of the door. She didn't let her inability to speak more than a few words stop her from expressing a raw, simplistic, childish form of gratitude and love. These little girls made me realize that what I may lack in age or words, I can express in an undignified bright energy that comes from being passionate about working with kids. This energy shines. 

I won't stop shining. 

Curled up at my little desk this morning, I listened to the birds outside and watched the sun peek through my windows. Here in Durango, it feels like spring. I like enjoying these spring mornings, so I woke up early today, ready to work. My desk is scattered with nalgene designs, to-do lists, markers, postcards and tea mugs. I got all of the photo contest picture posts ready for the next four days, so these will automatically update on the Sonlight blog. After working on this, eating a few scones, and sipping some tea, I got my creative juices flowing. I worked on designing a logo for the "Sonlight Pulse" (the name of the camper advisory board), writing the introduction post to the encouragement post series, and worked on a brainstorm for my project exhibit. I took my logo, and started rolling on the camper board. I was able to identify six focus areas and positions, create an application and recommendation process, and write some copy for explaining it to campers. Later this afternoon, I refined one of the nalgene designs, and worked on writing postcards to sixty four new campers. Even from home, I was able to get a lot of work done today, and Heather and I were able to stay in communication using google chat. 

As I reflect back on the day, I can't help but think: there is nothing else I would rather be doing.

Today I worked from home on camp stuff. Today was great because I was working on the the especially creative and exciting side of being summer camp director. I spent quite a bit of time working on Nalgene designs for the Sonlight store. I love graphic design, and thrive in creativity, so this was the perfect project. It is definitely something I enjoyed working on, and hopefully something the campers will like as well! I also got the photo contest rolling, and posted the day one photo here. Last weekend I snapped some pictures of camp with a fresh blanket of snow, and the campers are trying to guess where the pictures were taken! Based on the current submissions, there are some campers on their way to winning some Sonlight cookies! 

In one word, being a camp director is fun. 

After waking up a bit tired from a late night playing Ticket to Ride, and an adjustment to daylight savings time, I headed to the kitchen to help with breakfast, and then sat by the wood stove in the lodge and talked with the board members. After eating breakfast with the board members and their adorable kiddos, we exchanged many hugs, and said our goodbyes. I am so amazed by how in the span of a day I became so close to the people there. The relationships at Sonlight are so special, so valued, and I think that is what makes camp such a wonderful place. While reminiscing about the weekend, Heather and I cleaned up camp, and then spent some time talking about the camper board, which we are really excited about. I took a stroll through camp in all the sparkling new snow, and took some pictures for the photo contest coming up. After a weekend full of meetings, craziness, and a lot of fun, Heather, Nick and I headed into town for some "big-city" time, and roared in laughter over our pizza. 

There is something to be said for friendship.

Yesterday I woke up, and rolled out of bed into the kitchen to help with breakfast. We enjoyed a yummy breakfast with the board members, and then headed to the cabin next door for the meeting. We started off by sharing what we are proud of. I shared that I am really proud that we have a camp that values its campers so much and teaching and training them, like they have me. I shared that I am so grateful for the wisdom that the people here have shared with me. After everyone shared, each staff member went through their area of work. I got to see the budget, the endowment fund progress, the fundraising, and the maintenance projects Sonlight has for this year. Throughout the meeting I was able to share a "camper perspective," which I enjoyed. When Heather was sharing about summer camp, I got to present the encouragement post blog, and the concept of the camper advisory board. The board was really supportive of these projects, and helped me gain some new insight and ideas. The meeting continued until Heather and I had to start making lunch. We took a break after lunch to go outside and take a walk in all the new snow, and then headed back to the meeting. It was interesting to see the "behind the scenes" work that makes camp operate, and I really enjoyed hearing what everyone had to say. One of the board members showed a really interesting Powerpoint about millennials and our generation. It gave such an insight into the focus, values, and struggles with my generation, and campers who come to Sonlight. It makes the reason why I am here so much more real and important. After making dinner, and making a huge mess with ice cream pie, we stayed up late playing board games and laughing hysterically. I had only known most of the people here for about a day, but felt like I had known them for years, because

Sonlight brings people together

I like to start my morning off with some inspiration, and the Dove chocolates with the cheesy words of wisdom really do the trick. So this morning, during my pre-breakfast snack of chocolate, I opened up the wrapper to read my inspiration for the day: "live your dreams." It seemed only fitting for today, because I really am living my dream here at camp. The dream starts off with a day stoking the wood stove, and admiring the sunrise. It takes me to the office to work on putting together my presentation for the board meeting tomorrow. It takes me shopping at City Market with Heather for food this weekend, and is full of good conversation and company on the way. The dream is the static radio of rural living, and people referring to their house as "the one with the tractor." It takes me to the kitchen full of laughter, cookie dough, and preparing food for the board members here this weekend. It leads to the fish fry in town with Mary, Winston, Nick and Heather. The dream winds through the thick, snowy roads back to camp in a warm car. It is sitting in the lodge with people you have only known for hours, not being able to drink your tea because you can't stop laughing. 

So you learn to accept the one radio station full of static, turn up the music, and sing on, as you wind through another day of your dream.