Light the Way

            Sitting quietly, we wait. Watching people slowly file out of the covered recreation shelter in complete silence. My eyes stay focused ahead listening for the last call of Cabin 3 and 4. We rise, take one another’s hands and make our way down the gravel path. It’s pitch black but we aren’t scared, rather reminiscing on our last few days. Taking a sharp right onto the sidewalk lit up by small tea candles. We’re almost there, to the big white pillars that mark the entrance to the sunken garden.

            

            We walk slowly down the steep steps, watching that no one falls. Joining the U-formation, waiting for the last group to make their way to the entrance and close us from the rest of the world. Its chilly, wind blowing just hard enough to blow hair into my face. I remove the candles from my pocket and place a paper cover on the bottom of each (to catch the wax). Making as little noise as possible I hand one to each of my campers and take my position in front of them.

          

            The staff and lead female and male sit on the opposite side of the garden on a second set of steps. They look eerie all under the light of one singular candle.

Lead Male, James begins his speech.

“Thank-you for joining us for the final week of 4-H camp. We mean it when we say you guys make camp, camp. If it weren’t for you us staff and counselors would not continue to come back each year”

           

            I turn back to see tears streaming down my campers faces, tearing up a little myself. It’s their last day of camp and my last as well. The place I grew to love over the 6 weeks more than anything else, all summed up in this one moment. Despite horseflies in the cabin, camp sandwiches, and the honeybee challenge, nothing could have made this past summer bad. All these thoughts spin around in my head waiting for me to snap back to reality. As I focus again the staff members begin walking down the U-formation individually lighting each counselors candle as they say their favorite memories from the past week.

           

            I say, “Cabin 3 and 4 enjoyed rock-climbing, club-time, and the dance”. Almost not finishing my cabin mate joins in saying this for all 450 people in the garden to hear. The staff member lights our candles and we wait for James’s cue.

           

            “We’ve passed the light from us your lead male and female, to the staff that ran your favorite program areas, and now to your counselors. The ones who took care of you this whole week and are responsible for running camp. Now, they share the light with you. No matter what the light of camp will always be with you. With that, please counselors, light your campers’ candles.”

           

            I walk towards my campers covering the flame, so the wind doesn’t blow it out. I tilt each of their candles and light each one and join the line standing among them. I look up and see the whole garden covered in hundreds of tiny flames, lighting up the darkness. The eternal flame of camp, illuminating the emotions on everyone’s faces. On the count of 3, one, two, three the lights are gone. It’s pitch black but not as it was before, it now marks the end of a new beginning.