My favorite TV Show is SURVIVOR.
When I admitted that to a colleague recently, he said, “That show’s still on?”
Yes, still on, still compelling, lots of old episodes archived for streaming, and season 50 is coming in February!
But I didn’t come here to advertise for Jeff Probst.
Last week my daughter and I were watching an older episode and one of the castaways said, “I feel like I’m learning to laugh and get to know people.”
It is not hard for me to find connections between life and camp but this one really struck me. I’ve been working on cabinmate requests for summer 2026 and thinking about how every summer, kids come to camp, are assigned to cabins together with folks they don’t know, and really get to expand their horizons. They might share space with someone from another country or another state or another school, or someone whose family speaks another language at home or has a fun tradition before bedtime every night.
And then together with these new friends they’ll learn to laugh and get to know each other and adventure through the camp week together.
No distractions of video games or youtube or social media for a whole week. Not quite Survivor, I know–camp is not 26 days with no rice and people lying about not voting you out–but outside one’s comfort zone, discovering one’s true self, connecting to others, and having the experience of a lifetime.
As Jeff Probst would say, “Let’s get to it!”
Ernstlove,
eli