Happiness. Anxiety. Tears. Laughter. Joy.

While you may think this is an advertisement for the new movie Inside Out, it is not. I am referring to the mix of emotions that I witnessed this past Sunday while visiting my nieces at overnight camp.

Let’s take a step back for a moment. Let’s start with the background story leading up to the day that so many parents look forward to each summer.

Summer camp. For many it is a rite of passage. Something your parents did, and for many, even your grandparents. Not everyone loved camp, or maybe even liked it, but most of the people I know tried it, at least once. I know that every year I would get off the bus saying I didn’t want to go back the next year, but for some reason I never understood, there I was, getting ready to board the bus again next summer.

Since I don’t have children, I live vicariously through my nieces and my friends and their kids. I know that when my niece got off the bus after four weeks last summer, she couldn’t wait to go back. She started off the year before by going for two weeks, now four weeks. I am sure if she could (she told me this on Sunday) she would stay even longer. This year, my other niece was there for two weeks.

Getting back to visiting day. These camps are of course out of the city and are anywhere from 3 hours away and more. Bancroft, Haliburton, Sudbury, Muskoka, Bracebridge, Parry Sound and more. Some people just drive up for the day, others (like us) have always booked a hotel for the night before. My parents did that when they came to visit us in Haliburton, and that continued over the years.

Believe it or not, we booked the hotel in January. Sounds crazy right? Well, not so much, as camp is usually booked, reserved and paid for in October. Yes, the summer is just ending, and the kids are already booked for the next summer. Summer lovin’ as it were.

You may have noticed a frenzy of updates from your friends the past week or so. Getting letters from their kids with their visiting day wish list. For some kids, they are coming home just a few days after visiting day, but nonetheless, trips for all their favourite treats are happening all around town.

There is a mad rush to get to camp. The actually day is from 12 – 4pm but everyone wants to get there early. Get a good spot, under a tree, for their chairs and tables and set up. When we were at camp, our parents had to be the ones to park near the basket ball courts for the prime set up spot. Fast forward almost 30 years, the campers are now the parents and the parents are now the grandparents trekking along to see their grandchildren.

Once you get your car parked, you all go to the area that your kids are going to come out from. Here is where the emotions I mentioned at the start of the post begin to boil over. Parents are anxiously awaiting to see their children. Waiting, first patiently and then not so much. Wait, I see her…there she is…she looks good. Tears…hugs…kisses…laughter. “Let me look at you”. “are you eating”, “are you putting on sunscreen”, “why only 1 letter” were just a few things I heard on Sunday. Even I was overwhelmed with emotion watching all of this going on, and I don’t even have kids of my own.

Then begins the day. Cabin visits. This year we visited two cabins, in total opposite directions in the camp. Camp is 750 acres…and it was about 95 degrees on Sunday, so you can imagine what it was like. Cabins are clean and spotless. Well, just for that day. I know from being a camper, that you need to have the cabin in tip top shape for visitors day. Clothes are neatly folded in the cubbies, shoes are neat and tidy on the porch. Picture its a hard knock life from Annie (just kidding, well sort of).

Even the cabins are a rite of passage. Decades of names written on the wood of the cabins. So and so slept here 1988. Best cabin ever 1979 and so on. There are plaques for colour wars, CIT years, and anything and everything. If you are a parent, and you are at the same camp, maybe you get lucky enough to show your child where you named appears.

Lunch is served in the mess hall. At the camp I went to, that was never what we did. Our parents packed all our favourite foods, snacks and drinks and we had an open picnic at our car. We had a Caprice Station Wagon. Everyone stopped by our car for a visit and some food. Long after I stopped going to camp, my brother continued, and I loved visiting day. I think that is why I still want to go with my family now, to see my nieces. I am just as caught up in the event as I was almost 30 years ago. As I said, rite of passage.

There is a sense of pride for the campers. At one point, my niece wanted to take us to the A & C (arts and crafts) cabin and said she was taking us ‘a short cut way’, which she admitted along the way that it wasn’t really shorter, but she wanted us to see the waterfront. She was so proud to show us all the things she loved. We (her and I) also had a chance to walk alone together and talk. For those of you with kids, you know what that is like. Sharing thoughts and special time. As a very proud aunt, this is the time I cherish most.

For my other niece, the moment was in the mess hall. I had just waited for half an hour to get lunch and I finally sit down with my family who was done eating (not sure how that happened) and she says to me, “Will you come to the bathroom with me?” How could I say no. So I went with her and we had our moment then.

Time passes quickly at some points in the afternoon. And all of a sudden, there are announcements and music and the day is over. There is the long walk back to the cabin to say good bye. For some, it is just a few days until they will be reunited, others staying longer, will have to wait.

We pull out and onto the highway for the drive back home. The long drive back home. It has been a long day, but we all know, we would do it all again, in a heartbeat. It’s camp.