Every night around midnight – well, 11:46 p.m. to be exact – my phone buzzes with a familiar notification:
“New Tagged Photo – We found a picture of…”
Sometimes it’s one photo. Sometimes it’s ten. I never know what I’m going to get. And the second that little notification hits, the emotions flood in.
Will it be a good shot? A solo pic? A massive group photo where I have to squint and zoom just to find my child’s elbow?
The other night, I was scrolling through the latest round of photos of my younger son and his bunkmates when I kept going… and then, there it was.
That one photo.
Both of my boys. Together. Smiling. Side by side. And it stopped me in my tracks.
Because behind that single image is a whole day’s worth of shared – and totally separate – experiences: cheering in the dining hall, swimming in the lake, World Cup soccer day, an intercamp match. They’d each had their own day, their own bunk, their own schedule. But somehow, in that moment, they found each other.
Not because they had to. Not because I told them to. But because they wanted to.
And it’s not just that they looked happy. It’s that they looked happy together.
At home, let’s be honest – there’s bickering. Competing. Door slamming. Eye rolling. They crave their own space, their own friends, their own moments.
But at camp? Something shifts.
Camp is the great equalizer. It gives them the freedom to be their full selves – apart and also side by side.
It’s my older son stepping up as the big brother I always hoped he’d be.
It’s my younger one proudly rising to meet him, feeling lucky to have someone to look up to.
It’s Chipwiches shared at Snack. It’s hugs after being drafted to the same Super Bowl team for the first time ever.
It’s subtle. Unspoken. Pure.
Sometimes, when I see the two of them together in these photos, I hear them saying, “It’s our time.”
Straight out of The Goonies.
And it is.
No homework. No rushing to practice. No pressure. Just them, in a world that somehow brings out the best of both of them – together.
These are the memories that will stick.
Not the perfectly folded clothes in their trunks. Not the Jibbitz I hunted down the night before.
But this.
These unscripted, unexpected moments where they choose each other. In the middle of the chaos. In the middle of their own camp lives. They find each other. And that’s everything.
To my boys: this is your time – your sun-kissed, loud, messy, wonderful time. You’ll spend most of it apart. But when you find each other in the in-between? That’s the magic.
And getting to witness just a glimpse of it? That’s the real gift.
About the contributor:
Michele Pollock is a S365 Counselor who lives in Trumbull, CT. She has 2 sons, Eli and Ryan, who are in years 5 and 3 at their summer home – Camp Walden. She loves that they make the kind of memories to last a lifetime, but she is getting tired of waiting up til 11:46 pm every night to see the memories they are making 🙂