Zach - Humans of Camp America

When I first met the girl I was one day going to propose to in front of 300 campers and staff at Golden Slipper Camp, I had no idea what our relationship was going to become. I thought Arianna was beautiful, but I didn’t think anything would come of it.

As time went on, we spent more and more time together and by the time my senior year of high school rolled around, it was rare if a week went by without me seeing her. Eventually, we started dating. But every time wegot on the topics of things to do during the summer, she kept bringing up this camp that she had worked at. A camp called Golden Slipper. She told me it was a Jewish camp and she told me about Olympics and Colour Wars and all these things that seemed so foreign and strange to me - how could you love a camp that didn’t let you eat bacon? When she didn’t go back in Summer 2012 it crushed her. Enough so that for Summer 2013 she made sure to go back. I didn’t want to be left behind, so I applied too."

Arriving at Golden Slipper in 2013 changed my life. Golden Slipper was amazing and I don’t regret spending my last three summers there working with some amazing kids (I hardly even noticed the fact that I didn’t have bacon). The thing that I didn’t expect was how my relationship with Arianna was going to change. We had been dating almost two years at this point but I had never seen her truly interact with kids. Seeing the pure and unadulterated love that she had not only for the campers in her bunk but all of the campers in camp made me realize how truly lucky I was to call her mine.

The turning point was Olympics during the second encampment of my first summer. Well 2nd Encampment 2013, Arianna and I were chosen to be Captains of an Olympic Team. On the fourth day, one of the campers on our team was crying because she was tired and didn’t feel good. I watched Arianna go over and sit down with her and didn’t leave her side until the child felt better. She was exhausted and could have been doing other things that captains had to get done. Instead she took time to go out of her way for one camper.

I knew then and there that this girl was truly special.

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When Summer 2014 was rolling around, I hatched a plan. I knew that Summer 2014 was going to be when I proposed to her. GSC meant so much to both of us and I thought it was the perfect place. While we were at camp, I called her father and got his permission to propose and then bought the ring and waited for the perfect day. That day happened to be MTV Night, which is when the campers prepare a skit to a song from a certain genre that was assigned to them. 
My campers got Broadway Musicals and I knew what I was going to do - “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” from the Lion King. MTV Night came and it was go time.I walked over to her and in front of all of GSC, got down on one knee and asked the love of my life to marry me. She said yes, the campers cheered for about 20 minutes and I was the happiest guy on Earth. While our love story may not have started at camp, it got much stronger because of camp. I have no doubt that GSC changed mine and Arianna’s relationship for the better.