08/13/2026
"What's on your mind?" asks Facebook with each prompt.
Well, it's the last day of camp for Summer 2026, and as I always do, I can't help but feel nostalgic. With The Odyssey in theaters, maybe it's the theme of nostos in the air. Literally, nostalgia means "homecoming pain." It comes from two Greek words: nóstos, which means "homecoming" or "return home," and álgos, which means "pain" or "ache." The more modern meaning we think of when we use the word is a bittersweet emotional longing for the past, your childhood, or a time that you cannot get back.
When we see these pictures from camp, it immediately puts us right back there in Greeley. Thanks so much to the camp office for inviting us all in through these shared moments, photos, and via the blog. It's just so great to see. July 4th. Olympics. Frontier Week. Campfires. All of it. And then this shot of the Chiefs sitting together before the bonfire as it's burning out ––– so many of us can recall that exact moment in our camp careers.
I'm at once envious of those guys because they get to experience camp and all its wonders firsthand, but also sympathetic because I know the pain, the aching, the pangs they're going through at that exact moment when they realize their childhood is over. Not everyone can say they have a defining moment they can pinpoint as "That was it. That was the exact end of my childhood," but camp life provides one naturally. You start out as little kid and move your way up to The Ridge, and then The Tents, as a leader, a camp elder. And then it ends. Slowly, at first, as each Summer begins and moves along through all the days and nights, and years, and then suddenly, and all at once, with a lowered torch, then a candle, and then an extinguished flame. And with it, your childhood.
As these young men now know, when you're staring into that fire for the last few moments, tears streaming down your face, it's strange, and overwhelming, to feel nostalgia for a place you haven't even left yet. Maybe it's because camp truly is home and you're just longing to stay.
We love you, Lake Owego Camp.
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