Battling the "I Hate This Camp" Virus.

I am sure you are familiar with the virus Campus Loatheus, better known as the "I Hate This Camp" virus. For about a week, I suffered from the symptoms of this virus, which include constantly shouting "I hate this camp." After I realized that I, not the counselors, was the one stopping me from having fun, the next two weeks were absolute heaven, excluding the food.

When I first arrived at camp, I was expecting a swimming pool, cabins with bunk beds, flushing toilets, telephones, and TVs. What I got was a lake, a covered wagon open on each side, a small army cot, a pit latrine, no telephones, no TV, no electricity, and worst of all, no candy. I was not used to waking up at seven o'clock in the morning, especially in the summer, nor was I prepared for the barrage of bugs and mid-night visits from the local bear and deer families. I was even less accustomed to eating only one meat meal a day and had spent only about two or three days away from home or a loved one.

Needless to say, I was mentally ill-prepared for camp. But, I got used to it and realized that things weren't as bad as I made myself believe. Vegetables actually started to taste good! I learned fun things like carving and the rules you must abide by when using a knife, how to lash things together with twine, and how to fish with nothing but a stick, a hook, some line, and an earthworm. I even mastered the dreaded skill of cleaning the latrine.

Camp was starting to get really fun when all of a sudden disaster struck, and it came by the name of vagabond, which is the epitome of challenge and difficulty, or in my case a three day, two night hike off property on the Appalachian Trail.

The counselors told me that we would be in an even more primitive setting than the one we were in. I felt like fainting right there. To me, living in the middle of the woods in a covered wagon with no phones, no flushing toilets, no electricity, or no candy was as primitive as you could get, short of living in a cave. It wasn't that extreme, though. In fact, it turned out to be a very rewarding experience.

When my group and I got to the top of that last hill using the last amount of energy we could muster, I can confidently say that at that moment we all felt like we could do anything. When we got back, we told everyone about our adventure in the woods and kissed our beds. After all, being in the woods was not as bad as sitting on the steps of my apartment building doing massive amounts of nothing all day.

At the end of that three-week session, I was a teary-eyed little boy as I boarded the charter bus for the home I had so valiantly fought to return to just fourteen days before. I made a promise to myself that day on the charter bus. I promised myself that every summer I would come back to the gentle breeze flowing through the forest, the cool waters of the lake, and the clean that camp provided. For four years now, I have kept that promise.

I came to camp in 1997 when I was twelve years old. Since my first year, I have spent two birthdays at camp, my thirteenth and sixteenth; met several friends there; and had some of the best times of my life there. So naturally, I feel a kind of connection with the camp and its staff.

Camp, for me, is more than a place to go during the summer, it has become a living, breathing entity, an extended part of my body. I was a shrimpy, insecure city kid when I first went to camp. When I went back home, I felt independent, finally like my own person. The skills I learned that first year came in handy in the three summers to come when I would canoe the Delaware and finish earlier than expected, build my own campsite from the ground up, and hike the Appalachian Trail. All of these activities I would never have experienced had it not been for camp. Camp has exposed me to a plethora of new things most city kids couldn't dream of doing.

I can't wait to go back this summer as a junior staff member. I'm a little nervous, but when those younger kids look up to me, it will all be worthwhile.

Joshua Johnson is a participant in Trail Blazer Camps' leadership training program. He will return to the camp, which is located in Montague, New Jersey, this summer to work as a junior staff member.