The Year Without StoryBook

This year, I was lucky enough to go visit my Grandparents in Washington State.  It was the first time I'd seen my Grandmother since 2008, and the first time seeing my Grandfather since around 2002 or 2003.  It seems weird that I'm saying that, as generally you see your grandparents more often than once every ten to fifteen years, but distance and time has prevented things for the most part.  The train ride there and back wasn't quite the best (33 hours on the way there and about 35 on the way back), but pretty much every thing in between was absolutely amazing, right on down to the basic things such as the food and views.  There are plenty of pictures on Facebook to check out, and I couldn't quite share all my favorites.

However, while I was out on this neat little road trip, there was a place I had hoped to be that I wasn't able to make.  It's a place I've been going for the last ten years, and even though I'm doing my best to get there the week after Christmas, it still feels rather weird to not have been there this Summer.  I think back now that the Summer season has more or less ended, and am rather sad I missed out, but there's always next year.

StoryBook Lodge is a place I hold near and dear to my heart.  With beautiful campgrounds and buildings that pop out to the eyes all sitting on a beautiful lake, it should come as no surprise that the place has become one of my second homes.  There's this feeling of safety there, and at the same time just a constant sense of wonder and enjoyment that all wraps up together nicely and makes me feel wanted and appreciated when I'm there.  Not every memory I have of the place is a happy one, but the vast majority of them are, and for that I'm always very grateful and appreciative.  I hope to keep going there for years to come and maybe even introduce my children (assuming I have any) to the place when the time is right.  As you can probably tell, I feel a strong connection to this little camp in the middle of the East Iron Range woodlands.

When I was just starting to counsel at StoryBook (2013-14), there was a slight shift happening in the age of the counselors.  Most of the friends I had come to know at the camp who had either counseled me in the past or counseled alongside me were starting to run into the problems of adulting.  You know?  That thing where you have to pay bills and go to work or college.  Slowly, several of my best friends from the camp started to come less and less often each Summer, and while I most certainly missed them, there was always new people to meet, so it wasn't too much of a deal breaker or anything like that.  But as time went on, the counselors I started out with with the exception of a few choice people started to not be able to make it or would only come in on the weekends to visit.  Facebook worked nicely to keep in contact, but it never quite was the real thing.

I moved from Sophomore to Junior and then to Senior Year, and the number of weeks I was available to counsel dwindled down to two from four just a few Summers prior.  I stopped going as a camper in 2014 because I just couldn't keep taking so many weeks to be away.  It was a struggle, but money had to be made and homework had to be done.  Moving to Fargo and choosing to stay there rather than going through the hassle of moving home just for three months only to turn around and come back in August led to the adult necessity of paying rent, and so last year I went for just one week, and man did I have a blast and I definitely made the most out of my time there, ending with Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches made specially by the man from Philadelphia himself. 

It feels strange to have not spent even a day at StoryBook this Summer after ten consecutive years of camping or counseling.  But now after it's all said and done and I've seen pictures on social media, I've realized something, maybe the something that all the previous adults who used to be here every Summer but then started not being able to make it have realized.  The ones I only see in September at the Camp Sponsors Meeting and seem to forget who I am (or vice versa) from year to year.

Being an adult takes a lot of time and work and also effort.  You have to keep up your bills and you certainly don't want anything going to collections.  Evictions also aren't any fun, so you strive to keep up your rent payments as best you can.  Sometimes we just can't afford to drive long distance to spend a week in the woods with children either.  It's sad, very sad in fact.  But it's the truth. 

At some point, we have to break off from the places we know and love either temporarily or permanently.  For me, the first experience with this was Cotton School closing in 2011.  Even though it's technically still open and experiencing a second life as Old School Lives and it's beautiful and you just get this nostalgic feeling walking through the hallways, you miss the old thing.  You really miss being a little kid and walking down the hall to the library or up the stairs to your old 6th grade classroom that's now been turned into a community kitchen and several apartments.  Another vibrant example from my life would be the Nordic Ridge Pumpkin Patch in the Coleraine area outside of Grand Rapids.  We grow up and these places slowly disappear out of our lives one by one.  Some we go back to, and others we don't.  It's a part of life folks.

My heart didn't break when I had to come to the conclusion that I wouldn't be able to go to SBL this year, rather it just heaved a small bit.  But I realized that this year, like it or not, was going to come about like an unavoidable freight train.  There was going to be "The Year Without StoryBook" and this year just ended up being that year.  As I said earlier, it feels very strange to not have been there at all this Summer, but I had to grow up and adult, and this Washington trip also took up a lot of time off.

But I'm not done with StoryBook just yet.  My hope is to make it for the week after Christmas, but if I don't make it then, I'll drop by next Summer for a week and do all the things there I love, like sneaking into the kitchen after hours for a brownie or a sugar cookie or writing sports reports with a bunch of jokes that very few actually find funny.  Or someone will discover that I have an "announcer's voice" again and ask me to provide some voiceover for a skit.  Overall it's a break from daily life and still the last bit of traditional Summer break I have left.  How all my friends seem to have a bunch of unused time on their hands absolutely floors me, but hey more power to them.

My point is, StoryBook isn't going anywhere.  It will always be there for myself and the other people who have had to step away for a year or two or five to come back to, and it will most certainly be here for a long time to come for those who want to check out the camp for the first time and experience a week here as either a camper or counselor.  It will stand there in the beauty of the seasons, and always be there for those who want to come and utilize this little Northwoods treasure for generations.

For all of us who have had to leave something behind temporarily or permanently to continue forward in life, know that it's "just part of growing up" and while our hearts may hurt and long for the place we were once at so much, there's always an opportunity to come back again someday.  My last bit advice to you is to seize that opportunity and come back and enjoy everything, even if it's for the last time ever. 

Do you have a place that you used to enjoy being at that you can no longer make it to or had to take a very unfortunate break from?  Share it in the comments ~ DJ Rollie D