20 years at Camp EAGR

Many of you who know me, know that next week marks one of the most important events in my life: Camp EAGR.

What is Camp EAGR? Well, EAGR stands for Epilepsy Association of Grater Rochester. (Which has since changed names at least once, but camp still keeps the EAGR name)

Camp EAGR is a summer camp for kids with epilepsy, which has been going 22 years as of this year. Why then is this post called "20 years at Camp EAGR" and not 22 years? Because I missed 2 years. I wasn't there the first year that they held camp, and I wasn't there in 2000, because I decided to go to football tryouts instead (which was a terrible decision, camp's more important than football.) So this will be my 20th year at Camp EAGR. 9 of those as a camper/CIT, 11 as a counselor.

Enough background though... If you want more information, it can be found here:
http://epiny.org/epilepsy-camp-eagr.php

Tomorrow marks the start of the 22nd year or Camp EAGR. Or, at least, for the counselors it starts tomorrow. The kids get there on Sunday, then well all leave on Saturday the 17th.

For those of you who know me, you know exactly how much camp means to me. It's a place where I can get away from all of the worries of life, where I can be with some of the people that I love most in life, and where I can truly be myself... if only for a week. And although I'm only there for a week every year, it is the one place that most feels like "home" to me.

So next week, I don't just get to volunteer for a week, I don't just get to see people who I only see once a year, I don't just get the rewarding feeling that I am making a difference in so many kids' lives - just as my counselors did for me, I'm also going home. For a week. Then I come back to this thing that most people call "real life".



Somebody recently asked me what I would do if I won the lottery. After thinking about it for a while... I think I would go work at camp all summer. Pay me minimum wage if you must pay me, I just want to be there all summer. However, I cannot afford to live on that kind of pay WITHOUT winning the lottery.

So that's it. My last post for a week. You will hear nothing more from this guy until August 17th. And at that point I will have more stories to tell than any blog could ever contain, I will have no energy to write any of it down (or even type,) and I will most likely be walking with a limp. (Oh, did I neglect to mention the fact that I find a way to hurt myself almost every summer as well? Oh well, that's part of the adventure of camp.)

Until then, I only hope that your week can be 10% as epic as mine will be.