When I was six, my sister, our mom, two cousins and I headed out to a local camp. As soon as we drove through the entrance I was mesmerized. I wanted to stay there – to play in the trees and to be away from home. To my dismay, I soon found out we were just dropping off my cousins and my sister. I wasn’t old enough. What do you mean I had to be seven and wait another year?!
The next year felt like the longest of my life. The days slowly crept by and all I could think about was going to camp and being free to be a child. I turned seven and, after what felt like an eternity, summer finally came. I’m pretty sure I was the most excited person on the face of the Earth.
I was ready.
We went to the store and we bought a shiny blue footlocker and I stuffed it as fast as I could. Unfortunately, I still had to wait three more weeks (what’s the harm in packing early?). I filled the time watching The Parent Trap (the original 1961 version) and daydreaming of what camp was going to be like for me.
That was the best summer of my life. I got to play in the trees, swim, hike, canoe, ride horses and best of all – I had three meals a day and safe place to stay every night. I was free to be a normal kid with no worries. At the end of the week my counselor came up to me and asked if I would like to stay a second week! “OF COURSE I WOULD!” I replied, but told her that we didn’t have any money. She told me not to worry about it and she would make a phone call. I’m not sure what she did or who she called, but I stayed another week.
I fell in love with camp.
Our mom would find different camps for us to go to so she wouldn’t have to deal with us. My sister didn’t like camp – it wasn’t for her. It might have been because I told the other kids she turned into a monster on a full moon, or because I flushed her stuffed monkey down the toilet…but who knows. For me, sending me to camp was the best thing my mom ever did for me. She didn’t know she was changing my life.
For the next six summers, I attended regular overnight camp, asthma camp, and other various camps throughout Texas. In the mid 90s my grandma that I lived with passed away and I blamed my mom. I was angry and I hated everything. In the summer of 1995, I was presented with the opportunity to attend Camp Fire Camp El Tesoro de la Vida – a grief camp for children. I remember packing up my (not so shiny anymore) blue footlocker and heading out of town to Granbury. My mom dropped me off and across the swinging bridge I went! My counselor, Toni, had words that I needed to hear- life is a process, we all take a path – we have the opportunity to use our experiences to better ourselves and the world or we can go down a path of destruction.
I still have my shirt from camp when I was seven with the tag line: “The experience that lasts a lifetime.” I don’t know how I could have put it any better. That summer I decided that when I grew up I was going to work at a camp. When I was 18 I pursued that dream and it led to seven summers and a year and half full-time of pure bliss with a camp in the hill country. Now I am here at Camp El Tesoro.
Why am I so passionate about camp? Why does it consume me at times? Why does it make me feel complete?
At camp I found healing- I grew up in a home where it was more normal for me to be told that “I would never amount to anything,” “I wasn’t wanted,” “I couldn’t do anything right,” and that “I was a mistake” instead of “I love you,” “Great job,” or “Keep trying.”
At camp I found the opportunity to be a child. I found a community that provided for me in ways that I wasn’t getting at home. I was able to make mistakes and learn from them. I was able to play in the mud and explore, to make messes, to swim and canoe until I felt like my little arms were going to fall off. At camp I started climbing and I haven’t stopped.
At camp I had three meals every day and never went hungry. We didn’t have a lot of money when I was little and there were many days that I would go to the neighbors and ask for food because we didn’t have any…or I wasn’t allowed to eat what we did have.
Camp never failed me.
Camp was my escape.
Camp was my safe haven.
It took me in and told me that I could be anything I wanted no matter what I had been told my whole life. It told me I could change my future, that I could make it amazing. It taught me that in nature, you can find who you truly are – find your strength and change the world.
Naomi Healy is the Retreats and Rentals Coordinator at Camp El Tesoro. She has been working in youth development since 2002. In 2014, she left the United States to pursue a lifelong dream to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer. Naomi served in the Republic of Moldova in Eastern Europe, where she worked with a local youth organization to promote positive youth involvement, community engagement, taught English lessons at the local library and worked with a small summer camp to expand their programming. She holds a Bachelor of Science in kinesiology from Angelo State University, an EC-6 and ESLCertification, and is an International Prevention Specialist and a Red Cross Instructor.
