Year after year students look forward to the beginning of a summer full of trips to the pool with friends, vacations to the beach, and fun memories at summer camp. Whether their camp lasts one week or four, it helps to prepare students for their experiences after high school such as college. It may not help in a freshman calculus class, but it will help the student develop greater independence and confidence as they learn to live away from home.

When campers first arrive at their new home for the next few weeks, they are met with their first challenge: how to make new friends. At camp, they learn how to become “social butterflies” as they make friends with the people they enjoy to be around during activities or by the campfire. Having this skill may make life a little easier down the road. It can be hard at first to relearn how to strike up conversations with people you don’t know, so practicing every summer can help take away the stress of building friendships in environments such as the first few days of college.  

It takes time to adapt to a new home. Even though cabins are far from being called “home,” campers learn how to become used to the screen doors and bunk-beds. Being able to adapt quickly to new surroundings can be beneficial when, for example, adjusting to a college dorm for the first time. With the new bunk bed and roommate, a college dorm can seem far from home at first, but with time, it becomes “home-base” for a great college experience.

At camp, overcoming challenges is an everyday task. Whether it is homesickness or trying to figure out how to do laundry for the first time, camp teaches resilience and flexibility through learning how to solve problems independently and creatively. Joyce Meyer says it right when she says, “We don’t grow when things are easy; we grow when we face challenges.” Learning to face obstacles in a safe environment is a part of what makes camp such a great learning experience. By overcoming something small such as learning how to sail without capsizing the boat, children realize that they can conquer difficulties not only at camp, but also in other places such as school and work.

Having fun is what camp is all about. Yes, not everything about camp is perfect, such as the mosquitoes, but being able to make any situation amusing can help later on in life as kids are faced with less excitement-focused environments. At camp, kids are free to see who can become the most colorful in a paint-splatter war or go sailing with friends at the end of the day. They can play a competitive game of tennis or shoot a round or two of archery. In a camper’s eyes, “the world is theirs.”

Every child must learn to become independent. Whether they are in lower school or high school, learning to be independent can be seen through small acts such doing laundry or waking up in the morning without a reminder from a parent. It can also be seen in more important tasks such as moving into college or applying for a job. At a summer camp, independence is used every day as kids choose which activity to go to and when to get there. They learn how to take care of themselves through small tasks such as cleaning the cabin for inspection or hanging up wet clothes to dry. Because campers develop a greater sense of self-reliance and confidence in themselves at camp, they pack up and take with them a greater independence that is seen at home and at school.

Even though summer camp may not teach organic chemistry or physics, it does teach valuable skills that empower students to excel in many areas of their life including determination in the classroom. For many, summer wouldn’t be the same without sitting around a campfire roasting marshmallows or singing camp cheers at the top of their lungs as they laugh with their new best friends. Camp is not only a place in which important life skills are taught, but also a place to “hang loose and fancy free,” try new things, and just have a blast.