Culture

The other day, a few friends and I were sitting around, trying to decide where to go to dinner. Once we had made a decision, we continued to sit; being hungry, I decided to start moving towards the car. So I stood up, and said "LDT". My friends looked at me like I was speaking another language, and I realized that I was using camp slang from almost 5 years ago. In the summer of 2005, "LDT" was a frequently used abbreviation for "Let's do this", said before doing almost anything. That summer there was almost another language being spoken at camp... someone who didn't know our staff at all would have been very puzzled trying to decipher the "birthday cakes", "LDTs", and many other words and abbreviations that took the place of anything resembling a typical sentence.

Around camp, however, the typical conversation involved a whole lot of nonsensical sentences that made perfect sense to all of us. As I was thinking about how easy it was for camp slang from years ago to still make an appearance, I started thinking about the culture of camp.

Every camp has its own unique culture. There are things that tend to be similar, of course, from camp to camp, but each camp has its own trends, slang, and social norms. While what is going on in the "real world" has an effect on the culture of a camp, because you are mostly disconnected from anything outside of camp, obscure things become trends. What is "cool" at camp isn't necessarily what is going to be cool outside of camp, and I think this is part of the appeal of camp.

While ultimately the culture of a camp is set by the director and leadership staff, the staff and the campers at a camp have far more ability to influence culture and trends than they do at school, or other places outside of camp. In the "outside world", culture is going to be heavily influenced by TV, celebrities, and what is #1 on the charts. Camp is different, and sometimes that change is just what you need.