Reed Williams

Age: 22

Location: Starkville, MS

It is hard to believe that it has been so long since I left camp last summer. It truly feels like it has been maybe a week since I drove back home to Mississippi. I remember the look on one of my friend’s face, whom I had grown so close with, as I left late that night. It was a look of sudden realization that we were no longer going to be able to sit on the porch of Birch Lodge in the morning and talk because we were both going home to different countries. There are countless bonds that I formed with great people from all over the country, and the world, because of my time at Camp Rockmont last summer. I talk about camp with my friends often. I still have classic Rockmont songs stuck in my head that we sang each morning. “Country Roads” at Morning Watch, “I hear her voice in the morning hours she calls me. The radio reminds me of my home far away.” It’s getting to the part of the year where camp is only a few short months away. I’m about to graduate from college and enter the “real world” – something teachers have been preparing me for since Kindergarten. I’m no longer looking for jobs, but careers. It’s kind of scary. Ending last summer, I didn’t know If I was going to be able to come back to Rockmont so it was important to me that I left my mark at council for both the tribes I was a part of, and I did. As you can see, camp also left it’s mark on me. I still have a bead craft that a camper made for me during crafts last summer. I think about how honored I was at the end of each session when one of my campers pulled me aside, with great excitement, to thank me for being a mentor. I really hope that I am able to come back to camp this summer, even if it’s for a little while, so I can reconnect with the friends I made last year, help campers grow, and give it just one more go before I enter “The real world”.

– Reed Williams. Council Name: Booming Boar