The Modern Summer Camp is Pretty Cool
/My son is about to finish his first camp of the summer. He is currently in a Lego Star Wars camp. Next week he is going to a straight up Lego camp. Later in the summer, I’m sure he will do some sort of sports camp, most likely baseball. Summertime is camp time in my household.
I sat back and thought about when I was a kid, and I don’t remember having this many options, as far as summer camps go, back then. Don’t get me wrong, I went to camp, but it was either a week long, all day, all encompassing camp, or, a sports camp, either baseball or basketball. I loved these camps. When I was little I really liked the week long, all day camps. They were fun. I made a ton of summer friends, some of which turned into lifelong friends. I liked the games we played. The counselors, for the most part, were cool and fun. The field days, near the end of camp, were my favorite. Hell, I even enjoyed the gross peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and the orange drink. Those were fun too. The sports camps were fun too, but very different. These were more like weeks of 3 a day practices. What was so cool though, I got to stay in a dorm room, and hang out in dining halls and the main room of a dorm with friends and other athletes. These sports camps were also more of a, you may have a future in sports, so we are going to push you type thing. That being said, I loved these camps too. The fact that I got to play baseball or basketball for a week was awesome. I liked the drills. I liked the skills competitions we did. I liked learning from higher level coaches. I liked eating in dining halls. I liked feeling like a college student when I was a pre teen. It was all good. These were the 2 types of camps I had 20-25 years ago. Great, but not a whole lot of choice.
Now, that my son is of camp age, there are so many specialized camps. As I said, he is going to 2 different Lego camps. How crazy is that? I would have never imagined that as a kid. I mean, I went to specialized sports camp, but those have always been around. And, while researching camps for him this summer, the special Lego camps weren’t the only one. There are many different specialized camps for things like video games, computer stuff, other tech stuff, TV show things, multiple sports camps, I mean the list could go on and on and on. My son had a menu of camps to choose from. All of this is to say, I love that, as times have changed, and we have grown to have outside interests, so have summer camps. It is so cool that every type of kid has a camp that works, or that they’d love, especially for them. These Lego camps have been a blessing. My son gets to play with other like minded kids, playing and building Star Wars Legos, for 3 hours a day. And he loves it. He doesn’t want this camp to end. He is excited every morning. He’s pumped he gets to go to a different one next week. It is so cool to see my son so amped for something that wasn’t even on my radar as a kid, and this is a summer camp. In fact, since this camp started, I have gotten more into Legos.
Look, I know I’m not old, but I am getting older, and I love how there are so many options for my kids, and every kid now. This is a very cool thing, and I cannot wait to see what kind of camps my grandkids go to. Summer camps have changed, for the better.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is looking forward to being a senior citizen, so his kids can send their dad to old man camp. Ty is really looking forward to the camp where you say the modern sports stars are not as good as the stars from his day. That will be awesome.
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