A Home Away From Home

There's the right way, the wrong way, and there's the Keewaydin way- someone who went to Keewaydin 

Many People love things that others can’t understand. I spend my summers paddling across massive likes and doing hard work, and I love it. It's more than just paddling and working though, it’s way of life away from civilization and technology. Everything I eat, everywhere I sleep and every where I go is completely determined by my own work. I make my own food, pitch my own tent and steer my own boat. It’s all man powered. This year we paddled around the serene Canadian lakes for 40 days until the day for paddle-in finally came. Paddle-in is a day where every section that has been out on trips the whole summer comes back to the base camp where all of the cabins and platform tents are. It’s a highlight of the summer for everyone, all the campers paddle with fresh clean clothes and many parents are waiting at the dock. For many this is the first time they have seen their parents in almost six weeks. The feeling of accomplishment on this day is incredible.  After almost all of the sections paddle in, there is just one left, Section A, a group of seventeen and eighteen year olds who canoe all the way to Hudson Bay, a trip that matches the distance between New Orleans and New York, all in a canoe. As they paddled across the clear lake everyone was dead silent, when they pulled up the silence stayed, when they had unloaded all of their food and clothes from the canvas canoe the crowd of nearly three-hundred erupts and passionate hugs and tears ensued. It was truly an incredible moment. Keewaydin is second home for me, a hiatus from civilization, full of satisfaction and hard work. Some may frown upon it, but for me there is no place I would rather spend my summers