Disclaimer: I’ll probably forget to include a lot of things I want to talk about so I might revisit this post occasionally and make additions but if I do I’ll do it at very bottom. So anyways this year at Sky Ranch was probably the week that has had the most impact on me so far. The reason why this year was so impactful was because I learned something I really needed to. Something that’s always be a part of me is finding truth in black and white facts. Being a follower in Christ means you have to step away from the facts and just have faith. Which is hard for me to do. This past year I was dealing with a lot of doubt about everything. The concept I struggled with the most is Heaven. I’ve always struggled with this. And I think that has to do with me connecting with black and white facts that you can see the most. And while I was dealing with all this doubt, I thought I was the only one. I was so confused why I couldn’t just have faith in Heaven. I’m a believer in Christ so why should I be confused? Shouldn’t I just have faith? But this year at camp, I learned something that was perfect to hear. Everyone deals with doubt. It is ok to have doubts. It’s natural to have doubt. In the Bible it has many stories when people were doubtful of Jesus. So once again its ok to have doubts as its natural. Without doubt, it would be perfect, and nothing is perfect. But if you live in doubt, that’s when it becomes a sin. Anyways, I went with five friends, and one person that I am now friends with. Anna, Izzy, Claire, Elise, and Emily I knew and was friends with. Gabby though, I had no clue who she was exactly. I heard of her name before but never once did I have a conversation with her before. Luckily though I find it to be fairly easy making friends with someone that has mutual friends with me. So Gabby and I quickly became friends. Which was great. So Sunday, we did what we usually do whenever in Van. Sky burgers and opening show. Monday comes around and since we leave that night, at midnight, we did all the activities that are typically favorites. When we had torpedoes, Emily, Anna, Iz, Claire, Elise, and Gabby all went together. I went on to find an open group. I asked the two girls next to me and they were also looking for a group so perfect. Their names were Ainsley and Abby. I made THE funniest memory with them. While we were on the torpedo, Ainsley started to fall off and I tried to pull her back on. The driver of the boat noticed and stopped so we could pull her up. And whenever we did her shorts we down to her knees. I had to take a breather for a hot second because it was such a funny moment. We ended up getting her(and her shorts) back on the boat. We did lose her favorite anklet though so Rest In Peace Ainsley’s anklet. Anyways that was the most eventful thing that happened in Van. At midnight on Monday we headed to Colorado. My original plan was to wait until most everyone was asleep then go over to other campers and try to make friends because I couldn’t fall asleep, and I wanted to make friends. Well that didn’t work out. It didn’t work because all the girls (besides Iz) had to double out so it was impossible. Anyways what a horrible drive that was regardless. You know because I wasn’t able to walk around I thought I was going to get quality sleep since I’m pretty good at sleeping in different places but NO. Golly jeepers it was horrible. I think I got a total of four hours of sleep on a 14-16 hour drive. I cant remember. But I do know it was horrible. Anyways when we got there we were greeted by the other counselors, core, and sigma people. Then we were assigned our cabins. I was with nine other girls and two counselors. We were in Red Fox. The other cabins were Lone Wolf and Morning Star, I think. And then after that we got into our tailgate night event outfits, which almost everyone just wore a football or basketball jersey. Then we had another mini opening show but for Colorado. And finished the night with campfire. That was Tuesday. The next day, Wednesday, I honestly have no clue what we did besides mission impossible. We could’ve done western night Wednesday as well but i cant recall. Western night though was whenever we had to serve the family camp there. I was serving corn. Or kern as I would said in my western accent. Claire had broccoli salad, I think, and she said it like bro-kelly say-lead. Goodness there was this one girl and when I said kern she looked at me like I had two heads. “Excuse me what?” She asked me, rather sassy. I repeated kern and she just said “put it there” and rolled her eyes and walked away. Other than that one little girl most everyone i served went with it or just laughed with me. It was fun though. And mission impossible that night was so much fun. My insta post was from that night. It wasn’t my favorite night event but it was so much fun! Even more so than Van’s MI. The next day I honestly dont know what we did again but the night event was girls/guys night. We also had tribal comp. Tribal comp was so much fun. I actually liked our tribal chant. We had a cool stomp/clap intro. I liked the tribal comp activities better in Van though. I really missed jakobies (idk how to spell it) trashcans. Oh I’m a Maasai by the way. And Maasai won in the end so yay. And girls/guys night was pretty relax. We did peel off masks and s’mores and painted and just talked. It was my first time doing a peel off mask. The next day, I still dont know what we did but the night even was night at the oscars. NIGHT AT THE OSCARS WAS MY FAVORITE THING EVER. I had so much fun this night event. We were paired up with another small group and had to make a five minute script using a place, accent, and action that we drew from a cup. We were also given a bag of props. My group drew Mt Everest, a baby voice, and attending a cooking class. And our probs were a scarf, a very large pvc pipe, and a life jacket for a small child. Out script in the end was basically a baby sitter telling a little kid a bed time story but the kid would interrupt and change something to the story. Then when everyone performed we went to the “award ceremony”. Awards were given out like “best supporting male”, “best plot”, “best dance routine”, “best accent”, “best punch line” and then some awards who you knew were going to get the award like “best babysitter”, there was one babysitter throughout all the groups and also like “best victim of a table”, there was one group where a table (cardboard box) trapped a kid. My group like three or four of the twenty or so I think. The best part though were the counselors. They all dressed up as a character. Some examples are Draco malfoy, Rapunzel, a fashion police, and Troy Bolton at 40. They had to pair up and just the two of them had to reenact an entire groups performance. Saturday I’m still confused on what happened buuuuuuut the night event was hula hop and when I tell you hula hop was amazing, it was amazing. It was a dance party and let me tell you right now. I was dancing and singing the entire night and so was everyone else. I mean I don’t know what more I can say about it. It was a dance party but it was so much fun. And then Sunday was our last night there. It was night zips and campfire. Night zips were going on the ziplines at night time but it was still light outside when most of us when. Some people were still going when it got darker but it wasn’t like pitch black outside. And at campfire they gave out the torch barrier award, cross barrier, and 116 award. The torch barrier is basically given to a camp who was the “light” of the cabin. He/she was always talking to new people and never let the conversation die down. They were always positive and their positivity radiated onto the other campers. The cross barrier award is given to a camper who was like a servant I think. He/she would lead by example and made sure that everyone was doing ok, I think. And the 116 award goes to the camper that was always searching for more knowledge about the gospel. They would seek out everyday just to learn and grow in their faith. And then Monday we left at midnight, no night event but we were at the rec for like three hours. And then we drove home, the drive home was MUCH better than when we were going up. I got a lot more sleep and yeah. Oh one time though the bus actually broke down for like 30ish minutes. It was fun though. Then we got to the Plano Hope center and watched a little closing video with out parents and then went hasta la bye bye. So that was like the week at camp but the activities that we did in Colorado that I just couldn’t remember whenever we did them was the water slides, pool, the rec, pendulum, this like obstacle course in the air(similar to the cord if you know what that is), ziplines, and then like nine square in the air. Nine square in the air is actually the best game in the entire world let me just tell ya. Oh and just like funny quick story. One of my counselors would take rocks and put them in campers backpacks if they were open. The funniest thing for sure. I even went along with the joke and would help her sometimes. The funniest thing. Anyways we also had bible study and then this one other thing, I cant remember the word but, its where we would take a few verses and analyze them. We’d answer questions like who wrote the book, who was it written for, who was involved and the other questions like is there a sin to avoid, a command to obey, a new thought about myself or God. Bible study has always been one of my favorite activities and it was still my favorite thing this year. I don’t think it’s necessary to explain what bible study is so yeah, it just seems self explanatory to me. Anyways so that’s how camp was. One more thing I want to talk about though are one on ones. One on ones are my MOST FAVORITE thing in the entire world. For two reasons that is. One, I love talking, and two, I love the gospel. So combine both and its a blast for me. It also helps that I’m not afraid to talk about this kinda stuff with people that are older than me. My one on one this year helped me a lot. The main thing I got help with was my doubt. But I talked about that at the top so let me talk about the other thing that was really good to hear. I was able to understand that everyone is different and everyone was gifted differently. I always compared myself to others based on how smart I was, how good I was at soccer, and how I looked. I was afraid I wasn’t smart enough, I was afraid I wasn’t good enough at soccer, and I was afraid of how pretty everyone else was compared to me. And I would stress over these things so much. But my counselor told me that God gifted me with something else that some people don’t have. And that made me realize how I should stop comparing myself to people. Am I going to stop? No. But I am going to stop comparing myself to people to tear myself down. Instead look at what someone has, whether that’s intelligence, talent, or beauty, and use that to one, appreciate them and what they have, and two to boost myself up. For example is my friends have really good grades and I’m jealous of them for that. Instead of being jealous and getting mad at myself for not being like them, I’m going to encourage myself to strive to achieve what I want. And if I don’t get what I want, I’ll try again or forget about if it’s not beneficial to me. Oh and one last thing which I think is very important. Last year I learned one of the most important things I have ever learned in my entire life. Last summer I was still struggling with my parents divorce, long story short one of my counselors told me the verse John 11:35. Its the shortest verse in the Bible but to me, the most meaningful. It’s just “Jesus wept.”. And even though I already knew Jesus was a human just like us, I then knew that Jesus had feelings too. He feels all the same emotions we do. And he can be vulnerable too. He can break down into tears and be in complete sadness. I saw the counselor this year at camp band broke into tears. But they were tears of joy, I was so happy to see her because she had such and impact on my life and it meant so much to me. Anyways, that’s my story of camp and what I’ve learned. Sorry this is extremely late. Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day.