The Roanoker - July/August 2021 - 15

them, Sydney Sagman, I had a long lunch
at Virginia Tech, when we discovered
each others' email on a class listserv.
We'd lost touch a few years before, and
unknowingly had both transferred to the
school as sophomores. We had only spent
two weeks together in our entire lives, but
it was enough to draw us back together,
to want to spend some time catching up.
I recently asked my mom how she
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found out about Camp Friendship in
the " before times " (pre-internet). She
said someone told her about it, she can't
remember who now, but someone who
raved about how wonderful it was for their
kids (and, I'm guessing, for the parents
who got a long break from those kids).
After I settled in Roanoke with my
husband and our four kids, I remembered
that Camp Friendship was just a short
drive away, and I signed my oldest, Liam,
up for his first session. In the years since,
he's even recruited a cousin and a friend
to join him. This year will be his last as
he ages out of it, which pierced my heart
just a tiny bit when I registered him in
January. Last year was a loss, a missed
opportunity. Childhood is so very short.
A summer can't be reclaimed.
I frequently think about the pressure
my kids are under, particularly Liam, my
15-year-old. Everything seems ratcheted
up a notch from when I was growing up.
I'm so grateful that I was able to weather
my teen years without social media, which
I'm quite certain I would not have handled
properly. It's a lot to ask of a person with
an undeveloped prefrontal cortex. But at
camp, the phone stays home. So does the
iPad, the Xbox and anything else that
requires Wi-Fi. Camp rules, not mom's.
It's a blessed surrender, it's a needed pause.
It's immersion in people, nature and fun
for the sake of fun.
Liam's younger brother Preston, 12,
is going with him this year, though less
willingly. He's in a body that seems to
be growing overnight,and with his new
braces he's still not sure where to put his
lips when he smiles. He's on the cusp of
those complicated teenage years, just like
I was in 1989 when I first rolled up in my
mom's Lincoln to the Camp Friendship
gates.
I have no doubt it will be everything he
didn't know he needed. I
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JULY/AUGUST 2021 15
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The Roanoker - July/August 2021

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