When people ask me why I continue to come to camp, a million thoughts come to mind, but it’s two hundred and forty-two of them that stand out. That’s one memory for each lipsync I’ve gotten to see over the last eleven summers at camp. Tonight will mark the next twenty-two memories for this summers’ lipsyncs and it’s easy for me to understand why all of camp is buzzing with excitement.

I’ve spent three summers as a Blue & White commissioner and can easily point to this night as one of my favorites of each year. The reason is simple: tonight is not a competition but rather a celebration. Tonight, the divide between the teams disappears and the real meaning of the color war comes to light. Girls cheer on their friends from the other team when they leave everything they have out on that stage. Tonight, camp gets to see that Blue & White are more than colors and much more than teams. The program is not about a summer of competition, but about becoming a part of something so much bigger than any one person. In the moment when a lipsync song starts to play, and the shyest in camp begins to dance, you see the smile break across her face – she’s doing it for her team and knows she is utterly supported by every girl around her.

In just a few hours, all of camp will gather in Happy Camper Hall, to perform the dances they’ve been working on since the first week of summer. Their cheeks will hurt from smiling so hard, their hair most likely in the highest ponytail known to mankind, and tomorrow, everyone’s voices will be gone from cheering so loudly.  And somehow, the magical part of camp, the part that takes hold of you and never lets go, comes over every girl within the gates of Agawak and reminds us how lucky we are to be in this special place.

Tonight, camp will come together to celebrate our last big program of the session. But more than that, tonight campers will have the opportunity to be a part of something that will go down in camp history. Campers will learn twenty-two more dances so they can participate when a song comes on during Club Agawak or a lodge dance party. Twenty-two songs will now be divided up, and added to campers mental lists of the lipsyncs they’ve been a part of. And me, I’ll add twenty-two more songs to the playlist on my laptop for during the year, when I really miss camp.

When I leave Happy Camper Hall later tonight, I’ll have seen two hundred and sixty four lipsyncs. And while you may think most have faded from my memory over the years, I’m pretty sure they never will. Because lipsyncs are simply the thing that camp is all about; they’re about being a part of something. They’re about having the courage to be completely yourself, and the support to know that everyone around you wants you to succeed. It’s about being a family, undivided by age, state, cabin or team. Tonight, we’ll remember how lucky we are and that Agawak is the most incredible place in the world, because even two hundred and forty-two memories later, I can’t imagine being anywhere else.

Full speed ahead!

Julia