In recent podcast conversations with Dr. Bianca Bell and Matt Kennard, a few themes have emerged: the value of struggle, the importance of resilience, and the lasting impact of belonging to a close community. Here are five takeaways that stood out from our discussions.
Takeaways from a conversation with camp parent Dr. Bianca Bell:
1. A wise friend once told me: “Don’t bother with a short session camp.” The whole point of camp is the struggle and the working through it, and you want your children to have meaningful time on the other side.
2. Joy is the point of life.
3. Pine Island feels a bit like extreme free-range parenting, the opposite of overprotective parenting, which we know perpetuates anxiety.
4. It’s a place where boys take risks, do dangerous things carefully.
5. Camp friendships are different from school friendships, more deeply woven, loving, and emotional, and not based in competition.
Takeaways from a conversation with alum Matt Kennard:
1. Pine Island grows you up at the pace you need it to, it challenges you in the way you need to be challenged.
2. When you’ve learned early in life to have to rely on yourself and your community to get you through something hard, it plays out in the best possible ways in your future.
3. At ages 9 and 10, there’s a powerful window to build confidence and fill their bucket of resiliency – a bucket they’ll rely on for a lifetime.
4. On the other side of fear can be maximum freedom and accomplishment.
5. There is an emotional availability that comes from being in a single sex environment.