LEAN IN & DON'T LOOK BACK

Hey all, 

Happy Sunday. 

I just returned from a weekend away at the most magical place on earth: Point O’ Pines.

Starting at 8 years old, I spent seven summers here forming lifelong friendships, competing ruthlessly in all activities, and growing up with people I love so much. 

When you go back to camp, you are transported into a time capsule.

The bunks, lake, smells, trees. You’re surrounded by the same friends you’ve known for 20 years. You look around and see the older, way cooler girls.

And of course, since you’re now older, smarter, and wiser, you stand tall and air out your grievances against the camp directors for not giving you awards you definitely deserved.

No matter how long my camp friends and I go without seeing each other, the second we are back together, it’s like no time has passed. 

The entire experience is meant to be all-encompassing. There is no reason to be anywhere other than right there. It is probably the most disconnected I felt since starting Knight Vision one year ago.

You’re sucked into this world: one built from shared traditions, wholehearted participation, intense but loving competition, intergenerational bonds, and the feeling that everyone belongs to a culture larger than themselves.

We were at camp with women who were Peakers (the oldest age group) from 1958 through 2019!!! That’s INSANE. And despite being generations apart, we all knew the same cheers, songs, shared the same team spirit, had the same weird traditions. 

This all starts with the older generations that came before us. Moms want daughters to sing their songs and make the same memories because they are that special.

I went to an all-girls camp, which is special in its own right because you can totally just be yourself without any distractions of camp crushes or caring how you looked.

You belonged to a bunk, an age group, and a team. You sang songs whose words made little sense to anyone else, and as some people would say, culty.

You competed in activities, wrote performances, invented banquet themes, campaigned for leadership positions, and spent each evening absorbed in another collective activity.

Even the smallest things became rituals.

Jackets marked how many years you had returned. Awards carried stories. Announcements had songs that were remixed every year!

Friendships stretched across bunks and generations through camp sisters, mixed tables, mentorship, and team competition.

As kids, we did not stop to ask why we cared about team sports, being the best at singing, or even winning in archery so much. We simply did.

We leaned all the way in.

And this willingness to participate may be the foundation of camp culture.

Team Sing only works when everyone sings. A strange tradition only becomes meaningful when people perform it with conviction. Team competition (our version of “color war”) only matters when everyone decides that it’s life or death.

Why am I able to stomach everything in the startup world 10x over? 

Because there is nothing as competitive as camp competition. 

As alumni, we actually all agreed our camp was overly competitive. And we definitely mentioned to the new owners who are taking over the camp this year that it needs to chill out.

For starters, you have to literally take a personality test before they let you go. From there, they design the bunks to anticipate friendships and avoid conflicts. 

Unlike most camps that keep the same bunk together from year one through seven, at Point O’ Pines, every year, the camp makes you bunk with different girls in your age group. You quite literally have to develop the social skills to make new friends and break away from people you’re closed off with.

Starting on the first day of camp, you are ranked and scored on your skills. For example: 

Then every week, you get assessed against the camp’s weekly theme (which you don’t know): it could be friendship, cooperation, spirit, loyalty, etc. 

And every week there is one “Camper of the Week” who shines in this area.

No, I never won Camper of the Week. I guess when you’re rebellious at camp, it’s a bit of a conflict lol! 

When it came to Team Competition (our version of “Color War”), it was, hands down, the most intense competition I’ve ever participated in. 

The camp was divided into two: Blue or White. You inherited your team’s history, wanted to win for your friends, the older campers you admired, and the generations who had worn your color before you.

Winning was life or death. Losing hurt… a lot.

They were not soft at camp about who was a winner and loser. They told you, outright. 

But we also learned that competition and affection are not opposites. You can care desperately about winning and still care about the people you competed against. The older girls taught us to shake hands and celebrate the other team. 

The next morning, you still woke up beside the other team, and they were still your best friends.

I was on the White team, and I literally could never picture being on Blue.  

(Go White forever!!!!!!!!!!)

Our camp was not always comfortable, and that’s how traditions are upheld. 

You had to get into the freezing lake when every part of you resisted. You also had to clean, follow a schedule, live closely with other people, do an activity you did not choose, or accept losing something you cared deeply about.

I still think about getting into that lake on a weekly basis because it’s so mentally tough to do because of how cold it is, especially that early in the morning.

You just have to do it. 

This forced you to learn how to suck it up, change your attitude, power through, find the enjoyable parts, and lean on the people beside you. 

You also had plenty of opportunities to shine individually. I was a fierce competitor and got drafted into major Team Competition events.

My claim to fame in Camp Trivia: I was the youngest Team Competition waterskier in camp history at age 11!!

Camp made you know, feel, and breathe what winning was. It felt so good you wanted nothing else.

And at the same time, winning was surrounded by a place filled with imagination that allowed traditions to never be entirely frozen in time.

Every generation changed something. Songs evolved. New rituals appeared. Events took on different forms. Campers inherited a structure, then added their special touch to everything.

That balance is part of why the culture survived.

We were expected to protect what came before us, but we were also invited to use our imagination to the fullest and make it ours.

The magic lives on.

As adults, we are definitely encouraged to stand slightly outside of everything and protect ourselves from caring too much because it’s easier when things go wrong.

Camp teaches the opposite: things become meaningful because you decide to care about them disproportionately. 

Singing a ridiculous song is stupid if everyone half-asses it. It's magical if 250 people scream it like their lives depend on it. White vs. Blue is objectively meaningless, but mattered because everyone agreed it was life or death. 

So lean in. To EVERYTHING. Work, life, family, friendship, love, health.

Care way too much. Participate fully. Be willing to lose and do it again.

These are my oldest friends, the most resilient friendships I have, and we share a love for an experience and place that is completely ours.

Twenty years later, we went back and still knew every word.

Lean all the way in.

I hope you have the best week ahead. 

Julia