Let me start off by saying that I am in no way new to Baylor choir camp. I attended Baylor choir camp the summer before my sophomore year in high school. After leaving that camp, I knew where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do with my life and being given the opportunity to be a counselor and give back to the school of music is a huge gift. It’s actually a dream come true, but I had no idea what I was in for the first time around. Baylor choir camp is SO MUCH FUN when you attend. There are so many events planned for the students, but we have no idea how much goes into the planning. Camp began with a meeting the Monday before camp started. They pretty much gave us the run down on everything we should expect and we also put together 288+ packs together for the students that would be joining us during the week. It was a lot to take in, but thankfully, I knew the routine because I helped with camp last year. Choir camp would require lots of flexibility and energy and I was so ready to give.
Even days before, Ren and I worked on our campers name plaques and we did a fantastic job, if I do say so myself!
After a fun morning, I went to help get the talent show going. I had great co-leaders and a committee that was so excited to get started. We had about 3 ½ hours set aside to listen to the students and the talent was incredible. There were amazing singers, songwriters, freestyle beat boxers, GLOVERS [literally, the COOLEST thing I have ever seen], tap dancers and so much more! As a committee, we had to make the difficult decisions. Cutting children is not the easiest thing to do whenever you want all of them to be in the talent show, but it was hard. I was most definitely the Paula of the group. EVERYONE WINS. After the full day of making decisions and running campers back and forth from Penland to McCrary, we got to load up the buses and head to the movie theatre to see The Amazing Spiderman and it was AMAZING. I know it’s a little redundant, but it was so good.
The next day, it was business time. The talent show was a huge ordeal and we had to get the campers ready, the counselor skits together and the transitions timed perfectly. Thankfully, the counselors took care of the skits and my little, Ren Robertson and I got to emcee the entire show. I think the most exciting time I had was with her on stage. Years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to get up on a stage to emcee a talent show, but with someone who is just as silly and weird as you, maybe even more, it is so easy. The show, although very, VERY difficult to put together, was a huge success. We had the best crowd and all of the section leaders attended. They loved it!! The counselor skits were HILARIOUS [check Youtube or Facebook!] and most importantly, the students had fun!