When you realize how old you are

 

Every now and again it hits me exactly how different things are for kids now than they were for me.  Some days I totally feel in my 30s, while other days I still feel like I'm 16.  Each year in the middle of summe I wind up with this huge wave of nostalgia, wishing I could just be at summer camp again.  This year is no different in those regards.

I follow the camp ground that I used to go to on Facebook.  I found their page this winter through another friend who worked at the camp when I did and was happy to see they posted pictures of the site.  The grounds were always so serene for me and while I can't physically be there now, being able to look at the pictures help to bring me back there.

This is where the here and now remind me how different times are.  The camps running now are posting updates for parents on their page.  A day by day update of pictures, as well as live streams of some of their activities.  While I would love to be at camp every day, I am so glad that my childhood antics are not able to be documented in this way.  I have piles of old pictures, taken with physical film and printed at Walgreens.  What winds up online is what I choose to scan and upload, if I choose to at all.  I made some amazing friends, amazing memories, and had some amazing times.  Lucky for me, those are mine, and not all of cyber world.

Don't get me wrong, as a parent I can totally appreciate having a way to glimpse that my child is having fun at summe camp.  But even for week long camps, writing a letter and receiving mail as the only way to keep in touch with home was fun, and gave you that illusion that you were a million miles away from civilization.  There's something nice and centering about being away from it all.  One day I'll visit again.