There’s only one place that can make my heart skip a beat, one place that can bring me to tears, and only one place that can possess so much meaning and yet be something so simple - camp.
Outside the sprawling city of Sudbury lies a small piece of land that holds big dreams. Driving down the narrow road that leads to my favourite place is like the beginning of a new journey. I see the field with all the murals standing tall on their posts displaying so much history. Just a bit ahead, I see the dusty red Caboose, the small train car that is the headquarters for all things ‘tripping’ where you are told to ‘abandon all hope’. If you walk past the signpost that lies in the centre of camp and go by the staff tents all lined up with no entry to campers and then scramble up the steep rocks, you come to my special place within camp.
On top of the rock the air is crisp and the wind blows the beautiful smell of the cool lake water and the swaying trees into your face. It sends shivers all through your body making the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. When everything becomes too crazy, standing up here makes me see how everything is so small and it’s really nothing to worry about. I could sit there for hours watching boats go by on the water or picking blueberries that grow in small bushes all over the rock. Here I am nowhere near my crazy city life. I am surrounded by nature, so peaceful and so serene.
On the last night of camp we all make the uneasy trip of climbing up just to spend a few hours soaking in the last bit of darkness before the sun comes up. Everything is quiet and the world seems calm. The only sounds are the birds and the animals all around not bothering to disturb us. Even in the darkness everything is beautiful. Looking down on the camp from above is a view that is ever engraved into my mind. Up here I can see the entire place where I have grown and found myself. On the way up, written on the rocks are the names of all the incredible staff going back to the 60’s when it all first started. Off to the side in an inconvenient place is my mother’s name. It is where I hope to one day paint my name after being staff for 4 years or maybe more, right on top of my special place.
Every time I’m up there, regardless of who I’m with, I always take a second to breathe very deeply and look out onto our little piece of land outside of the sprawling city of Sudbury that has made all my dreams come true.
- Marissa Kachuck, Post 2012
