Will They Make Friends?

Our daughter experienced her first overnight camp with Avid this summer. She is an only child and extremely attached to us. She immediately was excited about the Avid Colorado Mountain Camp (CMC) because of the location and the activities included, however, the two week time period gave her doubts. She tried to recruit a friend to go with her and could not find one that was in her same age group or that could go at the same time. We spoke with Ian, the camp director and he reassured us that many campers attend CMC without a friend…our daughter decided to go for it. She is SO happy that she did. She absolutely loved the entire experience. She came home with many new friends. She said that her counselors were amazing at dealing with homesickness and rotating campers around so that they could make friends with everyone. We actually noticed on pickup day that she was greeting everyone that we walked by where previously she would’ve been too shy to initiate the greeting.

Much to our surprise, our daughter took us mountain biking on parent pickup day. This was the activity that she was the most worried about. She even hit a tree and fell of her bike at camp hurting her knee. However, she was determined to show us what she experienced and is excited to continue mountain biking with us. On expedition there were times that she wasn’t entirely comfortable – a little too cold, hungry or having to potty without all the conveniences she has at home. Working through these experiences developed a grit in her that was immediately evident. She is more confident, conscientious, curious and persistent. She cannot wait to return next year and has mentioned numerous time that she wishes that she was still there. Maybe she’s not as attached to us as we thought? LOL.