Inspired by prompt number five over at Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop: “What summer means to your family.”  I do have to say, I consider myself very lucy because I have a job where I get the summers off, so I can actually do things in the summer.

If you actually follow my blog you probably can see that I spend a lot of time (especially lately) talking about summer camp.  Camp is what I do for the summer and what I have done for the summer since 1994 (overnight camp that is).  I missed three summers at camp due to college and work, but other than that I have been a camper or staff regularly.  I also did day-camp pre ’94, but I seem to not usually count that in my camp experience, though it was a fun time and I do remember bits and pieces of it.

When I talk about camp, I really do think of the camp community as family.  In fact, there were a couple times when I almost used the words “camp family” in the first paragraph of this post.  Thankfully, my real family saw the wonderful things that camp had to offer and decided to send me to camp.  I suppose I should also be thankful that I also enjoyed being at camp.  There are very few things that I would rather be doing during the summer than being at camp.

I have been to three different overnight camps, one as a camper from 1994-2001 and two as staff.  The camp that I currently work for is actually two camps, a boys and a girls camp called Indian and Forest Acres (respectively).  Since the first day that I set foot on the campus at IA and FA I have felt welcome and at home.  The people here really are like my extended family or my summer family.  It is so amazing how that happens, to walk in to a new place and to feel accepted and welcomed in like family is just unbelievable, and that is one of the most special things about these camps.  There are people here who I know that I could call on when I need something at any time of the year.  These are people who I see for only two months out of the year but they mean a great deal to me.

So, when I think about what summer means to my family, it is really a twofold question.  To my biological family it is usually a time to relax, take some time off from work, watch the dogs play, and spend time together.  We spend time at our home in New Hampshire and go hiking and such and we also often spend time at my uncle’s home on Martha’s Vineyard.  It is a time to go to baseball games with my grandparents who have been taking us grandkids since we were old enough to walk.  Going to the Red Sox games is always an experience with my grandparents and it is a lot of fun.  It is something I look forward to every summer.

To my camp family, summer is life.  We like to say that we spend ten months of the year looking forward to the two that we live together.  As soon as you step foot back on camp you feel like you never left, and even the campers who are new get welcomed with hugs and open arms.  The summer for this family is a time of learning, growing, bonding, and fun.  Amazing lifetime friendships are kindled and every summer, without fail, every camper and staff member discovers something new about himself/herself and his/her friends.  In some ways I feel like camp is really the time and place that you can really be who you are and who you want to be.  Staff and campers here do things that they would never do in front of or with their friends at home.

Summer is a time to be free, to run around and play.  It is a great time of year to explore both the world around us and ourselves, and I hope that it will always be something that I can really take advantage of!

So, I have seen on a few of the blogs that I read that people are participating in Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop.  Basically, the idea is that she posts a set of prompts and people pick one or more to write about and then post their links on her site.  It has been something that I have thought about trying, and just have not got around to it.  So, now I am getting around to it and I think it will be fun, plus it will also give anyone reading my blog a little more insight into me.  So, from this weeks prompts, I chose number two: “What book captured your heart? Write about why the first book you loved is the first book you loved.”

I think the book that captured my heart was The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman.  It is the first part of the His Dark Materials trilogy, which is also my favorite series of books ever.  I first picked up the original hard cover edition of The Golden Compass after reading a review that had been cut out of the newspaper and was posted on the end of a shelf at the Borders in the Atrium Mall in Newton, MA.  I think that it is amazing that I remember that much detail, but i can’t remember who I was at the bookstore with, though I think that it was my grandmother.  Needless to say, I picked up the book very close to when it was released in 1995.

I remember the first time that I opened up the book to start reading it.  I felt like I was a little over my head and only a few pages in I was lost and couldn’t figure out what was going on.  I mean, I was only 11 at the time.  So, I put the book down for a while.  however, when I came back to it later on I was completely sucked into the story.  I have always been a fan of sci-fi/fantasy books and this story was no exception.

I am not even really sure what it is about the book that really sucked me in.  This is one of those stories that I really let take over my world.  This was a story that I could see all of the events unfolding in my head like they were real or a movie in my mind.  I would read into the night, lying in bed and then I would fall asleep thinking of all the things going on in the world of the story.  Sometimes I would even fall asleep making up my own stories that included me in the story.

Then, while I was in college, there was a fire at my parent’s house.  The biggest loss (aside from the back of the house) was books.  I think I lost the entire series.  So, my girlfriend at the time bought me a new set of the entire series as a birthday gift the year after the fire.  So of course I had to re-read the entire series.  I also picked up the audio books of the series to listen to.  Every time I re-read or listen to these books I get more out of the story or I uncover something that I haven’t noticed before.

These stories touch on so many different themes and ideas.  Pullman creates such an amazing world and characters that I think both children and adults can relate to.  Whenever people ask me for a book to read, The Golden Compass is the first one that I suggest.  Most of the time I don’t even really tell people what the book is about.  Some of the themes in the books may be a little edgy for some people, but I hope that people can can get over that and really enjoy the adventure.

This is a book that I go back to whenever I can’t find something new to read.  It sits in a prominent place on my shelf, and probably will always be my favorite book and one of the only books that I can really say that I love.