Thursday is a weird day because it feels both long and short. On one hand, the boys played so much baseball today, I can hardly remember the beginning of the day. On the other, it seems impossible that it is already the last night of camp. The only day that seemed really long was Monday; these past three days went past way faster than I was ready for.
Like I said, the kids played more ball today than any other day of camp. They did a few different drills, but they mostly played simulation games to get ready for the big game tomorrow morning. There were tons of balls hit, seeds spit, and plays made. The boys probably played twenty or more innings over the course of the day. They totally ate it up. One camper said, “I wish all the games we played were like this – just going on and on and on.”
This evening was the birthday party for everyone, which is always a lot of fun. I love watching new campers experience it for the first time, from not understanding at first why the camp is decorated to opening their gifts. Every year, each boy gets a cupcake and a present – a baseball glove for first years, cleats for second, warmup jacket for third, and Curve jersey for kids at their fourth year of camp. We had campers in every stage this year, including an all-time high of four fourth-year veterans. I’m going to miss those boys particularly; I’ve never known camp without them.
We also had karaoke at the birthday party, which was hilarious and awesome. I think some of the coaches may have enjoyed it even more than the kids. At least a couple of boys sang the same songs they did two years ago when we had the same party activity, but there was a lot more dancing this year than that time. Seriously, sometimes it was more like a dance party than actual karaoke.
Thursday is so bittersweet because we have a lot of fun, but there’s always that underlying realization that the boys are going home tomorrow. None of us are ready to go back to our everyday lives, and we want to soak in as much camp as possible. Already tonight kids have started asking staff to sign their hats, cleats, shirts, gloves, whatever they can get their hands on so they can remember all of our names. Many of the coaches this year had everyone sign their hats as well. It’s not something I usually think about, but tonight at staff meeting I realized that I’m going to miss the other volunteers almost as much as I’ll miss the boys. Some of the staff are my friends that I see often, but others I only see at camp. It must be hard for the boys, too – they become super close with each other and probably won’t see each other again until next summer. All we can really do is enjoy every second of camp while it lasts and then hold onto those memories as we look forward to next year – or many years down the road, as it is for our graduating twelve-year-olds. They’re already counting down the years until they can become coaches.
