“O’ Romaca our beloved here in praise we sing to thee”
Why can’t we always live in a world in which there’s a song for every occasion? Where wishing a friend good luck, or congratulating a pal on a job well done, happens more often than it does at home, simply because singing these praises makes the confidence and validation they can provide just as fun for the “giver” as it is for the “receiver”?
“We have learned from you our faith in love and God’s democracy”
Wouldn’t it be nice if we felt selfless pride, rather than jealousy, when others succeeded in the “real world” the way we do when our siblings get Olympics lieutenant and we “get nothing”, or the way we do when we cheer from the bench of an intercamp once we’ve been subbed out of the game? And how simple would life be if we all agreed to let it be as structured, organized, and disciplined as waiting to be first in the rotation to the Dining Hall for meals, or voting on a Deb Carnival and Banquet theme, is?
“May we keep our creed before us as this troubled world we see”
7 weeks doesn’t feel long when each night is a Free Play haunted house that bleeds into a campfire followed by a sneakout, and each day is filled with a soccer private that melts into a trashion show and an all camp dance party…but so much can happen in 7 weeks. There’s immeasurable growth - girls who feared intercamps and tournaments because of the pressure of competition fought hard and played fair for their Olympics team during the track invite or swim meet, and girls who barely performed their Get to Know Your Camper skits during Opening Weekend became hip shakers and dance breakers every time they stepped foot on the Rec Hall stage - but there’s also immeasurable pain; in just the 7 weeks that your girls have been away, just the camp community itself has been impacted by flooding and climate change. Imagine how much more devastation has ensued in the world at large.
“Your light will lead us on…”
Romaca will always be home, not just because of the traditions or memories or songs, but because of the people we become while we’re here. As summer turns to fall, and fall to winter, then winter to spring, please remember that our creed - that the magic of being a Romaca girl, of being true and raw and free - doesn’t have to fade on the inside; it just, inevitably, has to change locations on the outside. All you have to do is choose not to forget who you are when you’re here - silly, kind, loving, and warm - so that when life gets loud - through Tik Tok trends and YouTube vlogs that pressure you to become someone you’re not - or messy - through the overscheduled reality of balancing travel basketball with Hebrew school and dance - or just plain boring - because life can’t always be a 49 night sleepover, remember that somewhere out there, we’re all still singing in the Dining Hall, holding hands during Friends and Pals, braiding each other’s hair, and knowing that nothing else matters.
“Love and friendship are the measures”
How do you measure, a year in the life? In Rec Swims? In bracelets? In clean up scores? In cups of chocolate milk? In sweets? In cookouts? In lip syncs, or in cries? Friendship is your girl bursting into tears and running back out of her bedroom the second after she walks in because she’s finally alone for the first time in 7 weeks. Love is your girl’s exhaustion - from weeks of sleepless nights when memories were made long after her lights went out - and knots in her hair - from feeling so much like she belonged, in a place that you’ll never quite fully understand, that she didn’t care what she looked like.
“Of the way in life we treasure”
It can’t last forever. Living under the supervision of 19-23 year olds (whose words you somehow take as greater gospel than your own parents) with nothing to worry about other than what song to sing next at campfire isn’t sustainable. By the end, it even starts to fall apart; we fight with our bunkmates about non issues - like whose shampoo and conditioner to leave out for the last night of camp showers or who sits next to who at the dreaded early morning Departure Day breakfast - just to make saying goodbye easier. But that - the finite nature of this dream we call Romaca - is exactly what makes the limited time we have away from the cares of the world so special.
“May we stand united ever”
Being a part of something special makes you special. From singing your Pep “so loud that the other teams turn around and look at us” during Olympics, to striving to be the loudest division when singing “our name is Annex, we’re number one” in the Dining Hall, to feeling more pride over your Birthday Night theme than most people feel over their college alma mater, the feelings of belonging, unity, and allegiance fostered at Romaca give our girls the courage and confidence they need to come into themselves. Ironically, you gotta find your people, then you’ll find yourself.
“As we may live as one…”
No matter where this next year takes your girl, she’ll come back to Romaca. Whether it’s at the dinner table when she tries to get you to shake your booty, while walking around town when she runs into an older girl and you’d think she was meeting up with a long lost best friend, or when you least expect your 11th grade daughter to insist she needs to be part of Romaca’s first Floater division since COVID this winter rather than traveling Europe or going to parties in the Hamptons. From across Persips Road to across the country, in the end we all unite as one. We’ll just be counting down the days until the former is sooner than the latter. ‘Til we get together then, you know we’ll have a good time then…
All our love,
Schmaier, Carly, and Bethany