Brooklyn has experienced the magic of overnight camp the last two summers at YMCA Camp Casey. This year, Overnight Camp landed in the middle of the hardest stretch of her life. She's lost several people who mattered to her and had to learn how to carry that. Now her family is getting ready to move across the country to Maine, which means leaving behind the community she’s built here.

Camp gave her somewhere to put that weight down for a while. Two camp counselors in particular gave her something she didn't always have room for at home: someone to just talk to. "Just helping me when I needed it," she said. "Or just being there." At camp, Brooklyn had people who listened to and supported her through it all.

She's honest about the fact that grief hasn't gotten easier, but perhaps more familiar. "It's still scary," she said, "but I've learned to deal with it.” It's something she worked out herself, with camp giving her a space and safe place to process.

The move to Maine came into focus more recently, and it scares her in a familiar way. She'd struggled with fitting in at her old school and dealt with being bullied. Starting over somewhere new could easily have felt like walking back into that. Instead, she talks about it with something closer to confidence.

For a long time, Brooklyn assumed that she didn't fit in and couldn't make friends. Overnight Camp is what proved her wrong. "I made friends and so I think I know that now I can. I will be okay, and I can make friends anywhere."

Some of her newfound confidence also came from simply spending time away from home. "Not having to count on my mom for every little thing," she said, "I feel like it just helped me. I can do my own things." It's a small taste of independence, but it's the exact muscle she needs right now.

She has camp friends saved in her phone, and she's already planning to come back next summer, even from three thousand miles away. Whatever else changes, that's one thing she's decided won't. Ask her what she loves most about camp, and the answer comes easy. “Camp is really joyful,” she said. “You get to have fun and be yourself.”