When I was a kid, I was psyched to go on a long road trip to start our family vacation. This wasn’t your everyday activity; it was a chance to do something new with people I love. It was an adventure. I could not understand why my dad wasn’t matching my enthusiasm, so I buzzingly asked him, “Aren’t you excited?!” He responded with a loving laugh and said, “It takes a lot to get excited when you get older.” I was heartbroken then, but I get it now. He was right: new – I mean really new – experiences are hard to come by the older you get. And our human propensity to stay safely in our comfort zone is stronger than most of us are willing to admit. 

At Merri-Mac, every activity, building, game and tradition are centered around one thing: campers experiencing growth through friends and adventure. However, to model this for our campers we need to be experiencing this as leaders. And it’s harder than you might think. Friends are a steady part of life, but, the older I get, the more I have to seek out, choose, and plan to experience adventure.

Our full-time team of directors is made up of rock climbers, kayakers, mountain bikers and trail runners. I, on the other hand, am not an adventure expert, so I often find myself much more nervous than others when setting out on our staff trips. This was precisely the case as I made the two hour drive with a few other team members to spend the day deep in a cave. Yes, a cave. The wise avoid caves – why was I going into one? My enthusiasm was giving way to nerves the closer we got. 

After our equipment was in place, we rallied for a safety talk before walking the short trail to the cave’s mouth. Now, it is important to know I am mildly claustrophobic. So as we approached, I felt my chest tighten and my breath get short. I was sincerely weighing whether or not I needed to tell them I couldn’t go any further. Better now than a quarter-mile into this cave, right? But the desire to do something new and rare – something I could not do on my own – kept me steady long enough to at least try.

The nerves (and fear!) did not melt immediately, but before I knew it I was in the cave! The angst that filled my mind just moments before was replaced with awe and thrill. I was in a cave! And I was there with some of my dear friends (who were also fortunately cave experts). They told me the whole loop would take about four hours. I thought, “Even if I like this cave, certainly I’ll be sick of it in four hours, right?” Wrong. I was genuinely sad to leave. We had scrambled up rocky mounds, waded through a river, shimmied across narrow edges, basked in giant amphitheaters, and even crawled through some tight spaces! It was extraordinary.

What started as a day I wasn’t sure I could handle became one of the best days I’ve ever had working at Merri-Mac. And the recipe for a day like that is simpler than we make it: I was with my friends, on an adventure. 

That is camp. We try new things, make new friends, and learn new songs. We succeed in learning our roll in kayaking, but fall three times climbing up the tower – all while being cheered on by our cabin. We spend our time with friends on an adventure.

This summer, your daughter will have the opportunity to go on this same caving trip. I highly recommend encouraging her to participate – and to invite a friend! I will certainly be there. And while you’re at it, consider where you can fit a little more adventure into your life, too. We need it just as much (and arguably more) than our kids. 

30-year-old adventurer,

Elizabeth Olvey

Associate Director