Camp People

I met a lot of interesting people during my time at camp in North Carolina this summer - too many to write about in fact. While I'd love to share a bit about everyone I met, I ain't got the time to type up all those profiles, and you don't got the time to read them. That said, here's a sampling of the people I met and some of the big things going on in their lives. 

Darr almost always is accompanied by his guitar

Darr: Camp's king of Wim Hof breathing exercises and resident Russian literature enthusiast hails from Louisiana but recently finished up school at Alabama. While he's felt some societal pressure to go to med school/pursue a career in clinical psychology, his true passion is music. There are a lot of talented musicians on camp staff and all agreed he was among the most talented guitarists they’ve seen. Darr started a band a few years ago (their most recent single was one of my favorite songs of the summer. I'd link to it, but they didn't pay the Spotify fee to keep it posted so it is no longer available), but has been frustrated by the rest of the band’s lack of discipline and commitment (the rest of the band didn’t practice a single time or even respond to requests for gigs while he was at camp). By the end of the summer he had come to the conclusion that it was time to leave the band and start over somewhere new. While I always thought it'd be fun to have a shared enterprise with your friends, hearing about his predicament made me realize how having dreams dependent on a friend's efforts almost inevitably will eventually lead to strain on that relationship - it's near impossible to unconditionally love someone when your ability to achieve your goals is dependent on them. I caught up with Darr a week or two ago, and he told me that he had officially let the band know he was leaving Tuscaloosa when his lease is up in 8 months. He said they were disappointed but understood and that the lack of resistance let him know he made the right decision. He’s spending the next few months in Louisiana working in hospitality to save up before making a move to Charlotte, Denver, Sedona or maybe somewhere else to pursue the next step in his music career. I'll post links to any music he drops in the future. 

Richard was always the gamemaster for T-shirt tail tag

Richard: I spent most of my off days exploring Black Mountain with Richard - he always seemed to have the in on the best spots in town. Richard attended camp as a middle schooler - his old camper profile notes that he was competitive but sensitive (e.g. cried when he lost games) - I got a good laugh at that because nowadays Richard is one of the most levelheaded people I know. He’s studying Econ at Washington & Lee and spending the next near abroad - fall in Shanghai and spring likely in Edinboro, where he'll take more classes on theology. He’ll be writing his own blog while he’s over there - I'll share a link to it once he has it up and running. With the time difference in China making communication with the states difficult, he plans to revive the lost art of letter writing.

Caz wore that hat all summer and I still don't know what it is a reference to

Caz: Caz is also from the bayou state and has known Darr since they were kids. He's responsible for all the John Mayer songs on the summer camp playlist I previously shared.  Like me, he planned to stay only one session then ended up being convinced to stay the rest of the summer. He's been dating a girl in Spain for a while now and plans to spend the next year in Spain teaching English (barring any visa issues). He's taken all the classes and tests to go to med school, but will spend the next year making up his mind on if he still wants to go that route. At the end of the summer, it seemed like he was leaning that way, saying he thinks doing telemedicine in Spain would be his dream career. 

Another headshot screenshotted from camp's website

Daniel: Daniel first came to camp approximately 30 years ago as a 5 year old camper and has been back almost every summer since. He loves camp so much that he got married on camp property back during covid. In/after college was the keyboardist for a famous band that you’ve definitely heard, and even wrote their biggest hit (per others - Daniel doesn't talk about his band days too much). From what I was able to gather though, the way the contract was structured with the record company, he only got payed when they toured/didn’t get royalties, so he ended up returning to camp a few years ago for a fulltime position with a steady income stream after he got married and had a daughter. Seeing him give talks and pump up crowds of 10 year old campers and staff training sessions of 20 year olds with equal ease, its clear he still has the stage presence that touring would have required. I've been told he still plays with the band when they come to Asheville.

Leon attempts to hide from the sun

Leon: Hailing from a small town in Scotland between Edinboro and Glasgow, Leon first came to camp 3-4 years ago as a counselor and has been slowly moving up every year since. He hopes to eventually work for camp fulltime. Big electronic music fan. Big supporter of Scotch independence. Heavy Scotch brogue. Incredible ability to get 14 year olds chanting just about anything you can imagine. 

Elias' hair it a fair bit longer than this these days

Elias: You remember Theo from my Western NC post at the beginning of the summer? Elias is Theo's younger brother. Like Theo he was also born in England and has the rare distinction of being the son of a Catholic priest (if a married Anglican priest converts, he's allowed to remain a priest in the Catholic church). I had met Elias once or twice before camp, but it was at camp that I really got to know him well. Elias has traveled the world over, with a lot of time spent in Southeast Asia if I'm recalling correctly. If you've every played Chicken Horse, Elias is the ultimate horse; he's also a pretty savvy chess player. A few years back, he got covid and some of the symptoms never went away. While covid and traumatic brain injuries obviously have different causes, there are actually a lot of similarities between long covid and post concussive syndrome - similar types of symptoms and treatment methods, similarly little known about how to effectively treat them. While I wouldn't wish long covid or a tbi on anyone, it was cathartic to find someone who had experienced similar struggles: extremely low energy levels, emotional changes, family not understanding your symptoms/experience, difficulty finding an informed, up-to-date, and trustworthy care provider, and repeated frustration/lost hope over treatments that promise full recovery but deliver no results. Later this month, he'll be going to the brain clinic I went to in Utah last year. Hopefully that helps him to start feeling like his old self again. 

Switching it up on you - this came from google search instead of camp's website

Zamp: Similar to me, Zamp worked in corporate America for a few years before becoming disillusioned with it. At camp, he was the director in charge of the counselors-in-training, our oldest group of campers - a tough role that he absolutely nailed. He recently joined a fellowship program in Charlotte for young professionals looking to build leadership skills and make a difference in the local community. As part of that program he'll be living with a host family in the Charlotte area and working as a floater (part substitute teacher, part activities coordinator, part whatever is needed) at one of the biggest Christian high schools in Charlotte for the next year or two. Conversations with Zamp always lifted me up and helped remind me that I wasn't crazy for getting off the corporate hamster wheel.

Will was the undisputed king of T-shirt tail tag

Will: Will drinks more coffee than any human being I've ever met - about 11 cups a day on average from what I was able to gather. He dropped out of college a few years ago after he realized it wasn't his cup of tea. He's since been traveling the country in his truck built out for overlanding, picking up seasonal work along the way as needed to fund his travels and outdoors lifestyle. Each year, he crosses the US at least one time. 

This ones a few years old - Bobby now has long flow and a handlebar mustache

Bobby: His name isn't even actually Bobby, but for some reason that's what everyone at camp calls him even though his name is ... Mark. Bobby was the head instructor for blacksmithing at camp this summer (I was a lowly assistant). Bobby first learned to blacksmith at camp over a decade ago and now works as a professional contractor doing custom metalworking among other things. Bobby's got the confidence to try to fix or build anything - he once built a motorized bike out of an old bed frame. He hopes to someday buy an old car and convert it to solar power. He was about to buy a sailboat that he planned to live on until camp offered him a full time job - he's currently working on building a tiny home that he'll live in on camp property.