Jonah Satyr Sermon

Shabbat Shalom.

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Jonah Satyr. This is my 9th year up here at Camp Kawaga and this is my 4th year on staff. It is a bit bewildering to say that this is my 9th year because I remember every year I have been here in such vivid detail. I remember the first day of camp, getting my Big Brother Zach Cohen. Zach was probably the best Big Brother I could have asked for. Zach had intent with everything he went about. He loved camp, loved to have fun, and would always be there for me and the rest of our CIT age group, but would also let you know when he expected more out of you. Zach was an expert when it came to tough love. Tough love from Zach was important in my development not only as a camper, but as a person. This is because tough love combats complacency, the conscious decision to give anything less than your best effort.

I also remember when I was a CIT getting my little brother Paul. To now have the opportunity to be Paul’s counselor and have him be the captain of a Spectacular team I coached is truly full circle and a rare occasion here at camp, something I don’t take for granted. 

That’s been my focus this summer, not taking anything for granted. If I had to guess right now, 95% of you guys in this room are taking this place for granted. I feel this way because I was once in your position. There were so many days at this place where I just went through the motions without a second thought, when I should have been soaking everything in. The first time I coached a Leagues game, I remember almost tearing up coming to the realization that I would never get to participate in another one myself ever again. There were many different times when I had that realization, whether it was Menominee Competition, playing in a Spectacular, achieving a running contract, creating an art project, and I could go on for days.

I say this because most of you guys in front of me do have the opportunity to continue to do these things, and some of you for many more years to come. Don’t take any day you have here for granted. There are so many things I wish I did here as a camper. I barely ever went down to Miracle dock and I might leave camp only having my 2-ski miracle. I almost never went sailing. I never attempted to go for Double Sachem. There are tons of areas around camp that I had the opportunity to become well-versed in, but chose to stick to the areas of camp where I felt most comfortable. I urge all of you to leave your comfort zone and not stay within your box of familiarity. 

With that being said, don’t linger on the past too much. Be the person who you want to be, not the person who you were because you behaved that way in the past. This is also a call to be yourself. So many times in life we act in a way that we want other people to perceive us in, as opposed to being authentic. If you want people to respect you then be your authentic self, not a fake version of yourself. Camp Kawaga is the best place to do that. People accept you here for who you are. When we are back at home we can get caught up in superficial scenarios where we worry about popularity, struggle to find our place, and deal with real problems. I don’t know about you guys, but I would rather be pissed off that I lost a league game rather than being pissed off that I have a test the next day.

Camp helped me find my place back at home as well. Growing up I struggled with confidence, public speaking, and always cared about what people thought of me. It wasn’t until camp, and being lucky enough to be a part of the 2020 CIT age group, where I learned that I could be accepted for the person that I was more than the person I was trying to be. 

Speaking of taking things for granted, don’t take it for granted that you get to live with your best friends for one or two months straight. I am not like my high school friends in the sense that I can say some of my best friends in life are from Mexico and Durango, Colorado. Because of this place I was given the opportunity to make friends with people from so many different backgrounds and see first hand that no matter where you are from, we all have so much in common.

After an introspective year, I’ve gained clarity about my life and the reasons why I have certain tendencies. I’ve always said that the reason I come back to camp year-after-year is because I want to give campers the same experience that counselors like Zach Cohen and Jackson Gruber gave to me and that made my childhood so great. There is no lie in my previous statement, but I would be lying to say that I don’t also come back to camp for myself. When dealing with struggle and hardship, or even happiness and elation, I use Kawaga as something to lean on and look forward to. 

For the first time in my 9 years here, I don’t know what the future holds for me at this place. That thought is scarier than I ever would have thought because it wasn’t something on my mind until the start of this summer. Because I don’t know what the future holds, I am trying my best this summer to cherish every moment, go out of my comfort zone, and hopefully leave this place a little better with my footprints. I should not have waited until this summer to soak everything in, I should have started in the position that all you guys are sitting in right now.

So if you take nothing else from this sermon, take this. Give 100% into everything that you do here and treat every year like it might be your last year. If you do that you will leave this place fulfilled, and if you don’t you will have the lingering feeling that you could have done more during your time on the best place on earth. If you see one of your friends not giving it their all, then give them tough love. It might be hard to call a friend out for that, but know that you would be a better friend for doing so.

To my 2020s, even if the frequency in which we see each other decreases as time goes on, nothing will ever change and I’ll love you guys forever. To all my campers past or present, I hope I’ve been able to teach you guys some lessons over the last few years and that you guys all do your best to come back every year and become amazing staff members some day. As I said, I don’t know what the future holds, but whatever is in it I am prepared because of Camp Kawaga. 

Thank you.