Too Much Fun

Is it possible to have too much fun? Well, for adults who have daily responsibilities and various “urgencies,” I can imagine that having nonstop fun would be a distraction, depending on what you mean by “fun.” If it’s thrills and excitement, or novel entertainment, or just pleasure without purpose, then yes, too much fun for most adults wouldn’t be recommended. But if fun means having moments of playfulness, the freedom to create, or that relaxed feeling of being absorbed in something recreational, then this sort of fun is, when you can find it, certainly a good thing.

For kids at camp, however, I think it’s a little different. Camp means taking a break from things, a break from the pressures of school, from the wildly rushed pace many kids endure, and yes from the orchestration parents ordinarily provide (almost constantly!). Camp means being given the freedom to try new things, to make countless decisions for yourself, and to slow down or speed up as needed. At camp, the many forms of fun are available everyday, and girls can enjoy as much of it as they like. And at camp, there’s something special here that makes almost everything more fun— it’s the people, the other kids and counselors who have the same mindset. “Let’s go! It’ll be fun!” Even if it’s doing cabin chores, singing a song, or jumping in the lake, it’s more fun together. Too much fun at camp? I don’t think it’s possible.

Two recent examples of this come to mind, and both happened on the same day. The first is the whitewater rafting trips we took with our Senior campers. With all 6 buses making the trip over to the Nantahala River, we took two trips, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon, enjoying the bumping and splashing of the rapids. Altogether, about 80 campers and counselors made their way down the 9-mile stretch of river on these trips.

Running the river is certainly thrilling, but when it’s in a raft of silly Rockbrook girls, it’s even better. Having a bunch of friends in the raft with you makes the songs louder, the poses for the camera goofier, and the shrieks laughter more hilarious when someone falls out of, or bounces back into the raft. These trips are big fun, and today the perfectly warm, sunny weather was a welcome boost.

The other example is the all-camp shaving cream fight and slip-n-slide (one naturally leads to the other!) we held after dinner. Here too, bringing all of these excited girls together made the whole event more fun for everyone. If you haven’t seen one these it goes like this. Show up wearing your swimsuit ready to get a little messy. Armed with a can of regular plain shaving cream, you then race around the field trying to spray the white slippery foam on your friends, which means anyone nearby. In all directions foam was flying! There’s something inherently hilarious about surprising someone with a handful of shaving cream splattered on their head or neck or just about anywhere. Squirt, splat, howl with laughter, and repeat.

It doesn’t take long before most everyone is covered with shaving cream, and in some cases completely covered. That too is simply funny to see. But the fun doesn’t stop there. There are hairstyles to form (mohawks seem popular), high fives and other tricks to perform. Girls drew letters in the foam, posed for photos and kept laughing the whole time. Meanwhile, our now slippery campers took turns sliding down a wet sheet of plastic, zooming on their bellies, here too, grinning all the way. Sounds like fun, right? It is! It’s the kind of excellent fun that’s hard to find anywhere else.