For many teens who go to Jewish summer camp, it is a home away from home where it takes the stress off of everyday tasks such as completing your homework, making your own meals, and planning out your days. Camp gives you a space where you don’t have to really think about the logistics of a situation, and you just get to live in the moment. You can focus on things that you might not have had time to focus on at home, whether that is getting better at a sport or instrument, growing closer to Judaism, or just connecting with people around you on a deeper level. But I think the shift to coming back home from summer camp and reacclimating to your daily life is not talked about as much as it should be. 

For the past 8 years, I have been going to Jewish summer camp in Monterey, California. When I am there, I get to be the most authentic version of myself. I am not constricted by tasks already put onto me, and it gives me time to really reflect on myself. I can learn from my friends about how to be a better person in general through how I view a situation and how I come off when talking. I can focus more on my religious identity and my connection to G-d. I get to sit by an ocean-side view every day and share a room with my closest friends. These are the things I love and hold onto. But once I have to leave, how am I able to keep these things right at the tips of my fingers?

At home, I do not pray as much as I do at camp. I do not always keep Shabbat. I do not really keep kosher. My days are a lot different than they are at camp. I do not always have three meals picked out all the time that are ‘mostly’ healthy. I do not always have a friend to talk to at my side 24/7. And this shift can be really difficult for most, especially for me. There is this feeling I like to call “camp depression” where after I get back from camp I need at least 2 weeks to bask in the feelings and reflect on how amazing my life has just been while acclimating back into the real world. This year I wasn’t able to have that. 

When I got back from camp this year, I only had 5 days until I started back up at school for my Junior year. And right when I got home from camp, I had to rush right to registration to grab my schedule and ID for the year. Not the best move. Having to adjust from being in a community filled with Jewish enrichment and identity to a place where I am not close with many of the people around me was really challenging, and I don’t think I had enough time for myself to process the amazing experience I had just had. 

I find myself wanting to bring pieces of camp back into my regular life and coming back every year wanting to be a ‘changed’ person. But I don’t always think that is the point. Camp is supposed to be our break from the outside world. Our home away from home. It is a different experience than you normally have in the outside world, and it will be difficult to fully recreate that since you already have a life built for you. But there are ways to incorporate it into how you are as a person and your values. I make sure I keep in constant touch with my camp friends and find time to hang out with friends I live near. I also find myself always wanting to get more in touch with my religious side, which I am easily able to do at camp, but find it difficult to create time in my busy schedule at home. I like wanting to create a structured routine for myself as I have at camp, but it can be difficult since I am a very disorganized person outside of camp. There are many things that camp helps to teach me and allows me to understand that I want to (and will) incorporate into my future. 

Camp has even given me a place to reflect on what I want to do in the future during college, with ideas of possibly taking a gap year in Israel. There are so many people and stories and things about yourself to discover when at camp, and I think everyone who wants to should be able to apply those ideas into your daily life. 

The transition from camp back to real life may be difficult, but that doesn’t mean you can’t bring a little piece of camp back with you. And even if you are not able to accomplish that right when you come home, if it is important to you, it will eventually blend into your daily life.