Camp Meeting & A Letter Home

Camp Meeting is a weekly event when the camp comes together, usually on the upper fields or at the waterfront, to reflect upon what we have experienced and accomplished, as well as what we have to look forward too. At the end of Camp Meeting, one individual is chosen to read a “letter home” to his or her parents. The individual chosen represents the values we hold dear at camp. It is an honor to be asked to read a letter home.

Hi Mama, Hi Papa,

You’re probably wondering why I’m writing this in English. Don’t worry, I haven’t lost the language I was raised on. I’m reading this out loud to the rest of camp, and I wanted them to feel what I feel. So for tonight, your letter comes in translation, still straight from my heart, just in a different language.

I wish you could see me right now.

Writing this, I’m sitting on the same bench by the waterfront where I sat ten years ago, the very first time you sent me to Camp. The sun is setting behind the trees, the water is still, and everything glows with that warm, beautiful gold. I don’t know how you found this place. I just remember you asking if I wanted to leave school a few weeks early to play sports and eat good food. That was an easy yes.

Back then, I didn’t know what I was stepping into. I didn’t know what a Loop was, or what a College League dean did. I didn’t know a single person. I came for second session as a young teenager, a little overwhelmed by the noise and the chaos, by a language I barely understood and kids who already knew all the stories. I felt small. But somehow, even then, something about it felt right.

This place made space for me. And slowly, this place made me.

Now I’m back, not as a camper, but as the Unit Leader for the 14-year-olds. The same age I was when I first stepped off that bus. And it’s wild how it all circles back. I walk these paths every day and feel like both the kid I was and the person I’ve become. I see my boys, loud, a little awkward, full of energy and emotion, and it’s like looking into a mirror with ten years of memory behind it.

I took a group of them on an overnight hike last week. We climbed, swam in cold lakes, cooked over a fire, told scary stories until the stars took over the sky. And something about it felt real in a way nothing else does.

This place made me someone who can create those moments for others.

Being with the kids doesn’t feel like work. It feels like me, like I’m exactly where I’m meant to be. I think that’s what this place does best. It doesn’t teach you who to be, it reveals who you already are.

And that’s what’s been hitting me lately. Maybe this isn’t just a summer thing. Maybe it’s more than that.

I know how different that sounds. After everything I’ve poured into physics, the formulas, the simulations, the careful precision of it all. That part of me is still alive. But here, with these boys, something else lights up. I feel full in a way scientific research never gave me. I feel like I’m doing something that matters in real time, not just on paper. I think I want to work with kids. Maybe even become a teacher of some sort.

This place made me brave enough to say that out loud.

Lucas, my wise older brother, has always known this about himself. He’s been coaching since he was 14. Now one of the kids he trained debuted in the Bundesliga last week. When he told me, his face lit up like a sunrise. I get it now, that kind of pride, that kind of impact. I feel it every time one of my boys opens up, steps up, grows.

This place made me understand him better. It made me understand myself.

And now, sitting here, same bench, same lake, I just keep thinking: how lucky I am that you sent me here. That you gave me this. You had no way of knowing what it would become. That this place would shape so much of who I am.

I don’t know exactly what’s next. But I know I’m closer than I’ve ever been.

Because in all the ways that matter,this place made me.

Love always,

Moritz

• “Mo,” was born and raised in Germany and is currently getting his PHD in plasmaphysics, has experienced camp from several different perspectives. Maybe one day he will be the parent of a Manitou camper.