General Music Camp '09

General Music Camp was one of the most unique experiences in my entire life. It was absurd. It was such a strange mixture of fun and stress and exhaustion that I'm not quite sure there's another experience like it. Honestly, at first I was slightly skeptical of the whole deal. I'm not really the best with small children and spending a whole weekend leading a whole troop of them sounded like a disaster. After the first couple of hours at camp, my skepticism seemed like it was legit. It'd sometimes be hard to get my boys to listen to me, and I was already pretty exhausted. They never agreed on anything, or had any interest in participating in anything, whether it be group activities, rehearsals, or cleaning up after mealtime. Overall, it was pretty frustrating. At the same time, getting all this attention from my group members was overwhelming. Small children are pretty much open books, pure unfettered emotion. They don't have much to hide. I could see that to them, I was a an 'older cool guy,' a role model, an influence. It was pretty cool, but at the same time kind of staggering, knowing that anything I did could possibly influence their behavior in the future. As the day went on, it got better and better. My skill in lanyard making increased dramatically, as demonstrated by my construction of a pink acorn. After that was the campfire. It was fun, despite my group complete failure of a skit. We did a couple dances after all the skits were done, which we tons of fun. It was a good time just to be myself and not care what anyone thought.

I also really enjoyed bonding with and getting to know my fellow cabin leaders better. Our pow-wow at night was simple, but still fun and filled with laughs. I introduced the game 'Gorilla' to everyone and we had a great time making animal noises and 'bings' while laughing to the point of an ab workout. Then we reviewed our forgotten dances and listened to the teacher's excellent serenade. Overall it was a great time.

The next morning, it was a bustle of ceremonies, performances, and dances. Basically the fruits of our work at camp. After that we had play time for about half an hour. When it finally all came to an end, I kind of surprised myself. I was sad to leave. Through all of the stress, frustration, and exhaustion, I guess a part of me really felt it was a worthwhile experience all along. Well, hindsight is 20/20. And you know what? It was.

Hoping to come back next year,
Eric