If you asked me what “home” means, my mind may come to a house, an apartment, or any kind of place one would live. If you asked me on a deeper level, I would say that home is somewhere where I feel loved, proud, open, and peaceful, and hold a deep connection to. Home is a word that I hear a lot, and I feel as if the deeper meaning can be overlooked. I believe in the concept that “home” does not have to just be where you live; in fact, home can be groups of people, your identity, places, and more. I never fully understood this concept until I was a teenager going to Camp Barney Medintz. The 26 days I am away in North Georgia are genuinely the happiest, most enjoyable days of my year. Some may think it is because I am away from my family, but in reality, I have my own family made up of friends and others there that love and care for me just as much as my family at “home” does. When I am at camp, everyone is so connected to the place, each other, and their Jewish identity. It is a feeling I wish everyone could experience. 

Even though I started spending summers at Camp Barney in 2018, I never really acknowledged how much the camp meant to me until my teenage years there. Every session starts the same: there is that anxious feeling when you see everyone on the bus, and there is a long ride to Cleveland, Georgia. When the buses pull into camp, there is just about an hour of reunion after reunion with your friends and staff from all over. It really feels surreal to be there, and to be so close to those you have not seen in months. After, you get assigned your cabins and prepare for a sweaty unpack.  Most years, I remember not enjoying the long bus ride, the hour-long reunions, and the sweaty unpacking, but this past summer, I could feel that things would be different. Just by the way I hugged everyone, no matter who they were, I was experiencing utter happiness. I even felt excitement as I unpacked and helped my friends. After that day, a month full of amazing, lifelong memories came forth. 

There are countless memories throughout the session that made it feel like home. Just like my physical home is made of bricks, the emotional home I have made of camp is made of its own “bricks”, or memories, each with their own characteristics and moments. Some recurring, some one of a kind. Some happy, and full of laughter, others solemn and filled with tears. 

At the foundation of my home sit the memories that everything is built upon, or the moments that reoccur. The memories that made camp what it is. These include the moments when my cabin was up for hours at night laughing and sharing absolutely anything that came to mind with no fear of being judged. The moments when we would all stand on the tables and sing when we heard a song we liked during meals, the effortlessly perfect sunset photo shoots that we would all obsess over afterwards, or the random song sessions that always ended with our camp song.

The next part of my imaginary home are the floors, or levels. To me, my “floor” memories are the ones that took my sense of belonging and feeling of home to a higher level, leaving me always thinking back to them. These memories also are some of my favorite bonding moments with people who I am close with now. I can recall stressful times like when we were short a few team members for color war and  two of our friends sprinted over just in time for the race and actually ended up winning. Then there are the times when my cabin and I would talk and sing for hours while on a long hike to get our minds off of our throbbing feet. My floor of memories is also full of times when we were having fun, like when a few of my friends and I ran around a field throwing water at each other while videotaping the whole thing. I still laugh at those videos to this day. Another time was when me and a few girls I was not super close with were on a water skiing day trip and shared two pints of ice cream, five popsicles, two iced coffees, and six sodas. We ate and talked, laughed at absolutely everything while taking shelter under a small roof while it poured rain. 

The second to last part of my home is the roof, which protects everything and is basically the most important part of the structure. My roof of memories hold the whole experience together, like when everyone was bawling on the last day of camp, demonstrating how much they love our summer home and do not want our time to end. Also, during the last Shabbat, everyone wraps their arms around each other no matter who stands next to you. Another memory that is especially important to me is when me and my cabin, on the first and last night of camp, all could not sleep and eventually fell asleep all close to each other. This really made me realize how connected we all are to each other and how our connection grew along with us as people throughout the session. Some of these memories were epiphanies and prove that Camp Barney Medintz is a place that I belong. Examples are when I first reflected on the session and realized how much closer I got to new friends and old friends or how I felt a sense of belonging and accomplishment when I received my seven-year shirt. 

Lastly, the final part of my emotional home is the attic. These are the memories and thoughts that I may not want to pay attention to, but they are hard to avoid. A memory like this is when I first got home thinking, “how did I go from being just a cabin away from my friends to hundreds of miles?”. Another example is when some of my friends told me that it was their last year going to camp. Imagining camp without some of those people is almost impossible for me; but, as Dr. Seuss said, and it is displayed all over my camp, “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened”.

Home is what you make it. This I believe. Home does not just reflect where you live, home is an emotional attachment too. For me, home is Camp Barney Medintz which waits for me to visit every July. As detailed in the memories I shared, I believe a main part of what makes camp feel like  home are the friends I share the place with. They make my summer. This I believe. They turn the bad into good and will always have my back at my summer place. This I know.