Alex C.'s Success Story!

Hey, Camp Fans!

We saw such a great response to our annual ‘Share Your Camp Story’ Contest at Everything Summer Camp in 2018 that we’re still going strong publishing each submission right here on the Blog in the New Year. Your stories were fantastic and it’s such a fun time reading through them!

Today’s post comes from Alex C. who wrote in to tell us about her really fun camp stay at Camp Stewart for Boys. Get a look at today’s submission about his stay: 

“I'm Alex C., a 12-year-old boy who attended Camp Stewart for Boys for the first time this past summer. I want to write about my third day of camp, when I bravely climbed and then jumped off of Indian Head Rock, a rock next to the Guadalupe River that looks just like the profile of an American Indian. Here is my true story:

I grasped Indian Head Rock with my right hand and moved my left foot to the foothold. My position was tenacious, and my fingers clutched the handhold as confidence poured over me. I then pulled myself a little bit farther up the crag, and as I did so, my form kept consistent.

I felt resilient climbing up the rock, and did not reserve energy when I was climbing up the tor. I pulled myself higher and higher without thinking of the expanse between my feet and the ground. I felt like a flurry climbing up the crag, but by the time I was near the top most of my energy had depleted. I stumbled on the rock abruptly realizing how much of my stamina I had wasted. I was sweating, my face was red, and I felt almost feverish below the incandescent sun.

I looked down at the ground, the water glistened below me and I felt a small rise in confidence as I reminded myself I was climbing above a large placid river, and I started to climb once again my confidence waxing. I halted once again just inches before the top, there was an overhang right at the top. I put my hand over the overhang, and I could feel the top of the rock. Then suddenly my footing gave way, and the rocks my feet had been on cascaded down the cliff. This left me in the position with all of my feet and my left hand dangling in the air, and my right hand on the top of the crag. My confidence wavered drastically, but my adrenaline soared. Using every ounce of muscle in my body, I moved my left hand next to my right and pulled my body up the overhang and lie down gasping for air.

I lay down for a minute or two thinking back to everything that had just happened. Then I stood up realizing that I was lucky to have made it to the top, and that I had been foolish to forget about conserving my energy, but wise to correct my mistake, but most of all determined to achieve the goal. With that thought I looked to my left at the small brook feeding into the river, at the bluff behind me, at the expansive river to my right, and at the rest of camp in front of me where more adventures await.

Then with a bliss and merriment surging through my heart, I jumped off the rock into the Guadalupe River.”

Sounds intense, Alex! What an opportunity you took advantage of at Camp Stewart! I’m delighted to hear that you embraced this challenge so fearlessly. And you articulate your experience so clearly! Camp must have been such a blast! Thanks for sharing, Alex. For anybody else interested in checking out Camp Stewart, be sure to check them out for yourself and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John