There is something really powerful about being taken out of our normal surroundings and thrown into an unfamiliar place with other strangers. You become instant friends, almost instant family, with the people that you find yourself with. This phenomenon is called communitas and it happened to me last summer. I was hired as a camp counselor at a summer camp called “Camp Friendship” in Fluvanna County, VA. I used to go to this camp as a kid, but I hadn’t been there in six years. When I arrived in late May, I didn’t know a soul. Neither did anyone else.
Staff had come from all over the world: England, Australia, Russia, Minnesota… And we barely had anything in common, except for the fact that we were about to spend the entire summer taking care of kids in the woods. It was crazy how we instantly bonded. We suddenly became this family of strangers. We were taken out of our familiar element and put together in the woods, and by the sheer fact that we had no other choice but to bond, the communitas that started in the beginning grew into a strong bond by the end of the summer.
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