Adam - Humans of Camp America

I felt restless. I really wanted to see more of the world and take on new challenges, but I had very little idea about how to go about doing it. I tried to persuade friends to come on a new adventure with me, but I quickly realised that this was something that I needed to do by myself, and do for myself.

I’d heard great things from people, who had applied to Camp America in the past, and I wanted to share in the excitement that they had shown whilst sharing stories of their experiences.

Getting on that plane back in May 2015 felt like a big ordeal, but I genuinely never looked back. It took about 24 hours for camp to feel like home, and for strangers to start feeling like friends. The environment could not have been any more positive and this gave me the confidence to believe in myself, and to express myself.

This helped me to be able to achieve things that I never knew I could, and to overcome challenges that I didn’t think I was capable of overcoming. You hear so many things about how camp will change your life, but you don’t really realise to what it extent it changes your life until you begin to live and breathe camp.

I was fortunate enough to spend two whole summers at camp; one working as a counsellor and one working as the program director. I seriously would not change the experiences of those two summers for the world!

The friendships I made during those times are still strong today, and it’s been amazing going back over to places like the US and Spain to catch up with friends I met at camp! It’s also great keeping in touch with my camp to see all the fun stuff they are doing throughout the year; you really get to see the impact that your great week with your camper has had in their future progression, which is an amazing feeling!

Before I went to camp I felt really lost with life; home didn’t feel like home anymore and I felt like I was wasting my potential. Thanks to camp I managed to find a new place to call home in the US, and also really came to appreciate and understand a lot of stuff I love about home in the UK…they always say absence makes the heart grow fonder and US chocolate just doesn’t quite cut it!

My life feels much greater for the experiences I made at camp and for meeting the people I did along the way. My advice to anyone thinking about doing camp is go for it! The travelling, working abroad, the experiences and memories you will make…you really cannot put a price on all that. It will stay with you forever…(and it also looks pretty great on the CV too!)

The thing that will always stay with me was the day that my director (and good friend) told me that I will make a great dad one day.

May 2015 – August 2015 (Camp Counsellor)
May 2016 – August 2016 (Camp Program Director)