The day I arrived at Leadership Camp, I was excited. I was with my best friend and was back at Firefly Farm. As we gathered together in the clubhouse, I saw many faces that I did not know, but somehow that made me excited too. As we sat down, we were all told to introduce ourselves. With a confident smile, I said, “Hello, my name is Emma and I’m in fifth grade.” From that moment forward, I knew that it was going to be one of the best weeks ever.

The forest was a lush green and there was a clear trail where we could hike. As we walked through the woods I saw another girl my age who was attending the camp. I knew her name, so I decided it would be a great time to introduce myself, but I didn’t have the nerve to continue the conversation.       

After the hike, we went around the circle introducing ourselves and I had finally gotten to know someone. After that, the friend that I came with had already started talking to the girl from the hike. My friend introduced me to her and I introduced her to the person I had met. After that, we all became great friends and always hung out together.

During lunch, we would go down to the pond and walk together on hikes. We had nicknames for each other and every time we had the chance to pick our groups, we would always choose each other. We called ourselves “The Iroquois Tribe,” mostly because we were all on the Iroquois team at Stanley Clark.

We still bring up our first year at camp during retreats, saying how fun that year was. Stanley Clark is a great school to feel welcomed and an amazing school for making friends -- the camps especially. At the camps, you can meet people that don’t even go to SCS and they can become some of your best friends. To this day we are all tight-knit. It is almost impossible to think about how things would be different if I hadn't gone to that camp where I made such amazing friends. I cannot wait to see them all again!