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I’m sitting at camp writing this, duh.

Camp Skywild is popping off outside, and my role in it is mostly cheerleader, mascot, and (sometimes) dish guy. Doing some activities. Cleaning up dishes. Shutting down certain areas of camp. On the phone with parents. Eating Cocoa Puffs for fuel (don’t judge me).

That’s one half of my brain, closing out Summer 2026 while still working on things happening here.

The other half is already in Summer 2027 mode. It has been since July. My brain doesn’t know another way.

Because this time of year, I think, camp people are in two summers at once.

What a crazy industry we work in. Is there anything else like it?

The closest thing, schedule-wise and switch-flip-wise, is pro sports. Not athleticism-wise, though that goes without saying unless you are Will Norry playing Ultimate Frisbee.

Months of the most intense, highest-leverage weeks of the year, and then one day the season just… ends.

So it’s like, how fast can you call your trainer and say, let’s get going for next year. Some guys famously started at 4 AM the next morning. Everyone else lands somewhere on that spectrum.

I’m not comparing what we do to Josh Allen and James Cook and DJ Moore (!). Go Bills, going to be a good season!

But this is a weird time of year for sure. Playing and training are two totally different things, and switching between them is its own skill.

Not All the Way Back

Honest report? A week and change after the buses left: I’m slow. Not sloooooow. But yeah, slow.

My brain is a bit fractured, still tired. Just haven’t rested enough.

And everything on the screen feels less urgent than it should. Sometimes I’m reminding myself, yes, these phone calls matter. Yes, getting back to this email matters. Yes, thinking about the website matters. Yes, writing newsletters matters.

Which makes sense. After a summer where everything was a kid or a staff member or a parent standing right in front of me, the computer stuff has a hard time competing.

I’m getting better every day. More calls, faster emails, better focus. But I’m not all the way back to “computer work matters.”

If you’re somewhere in that mode too, I think that’s just what the ramp looks like.

Who Flips First

Like a lot of you, but maybe not all, I was in 2027 mode before 2026 ended. If you are thinking about re-registrations or summer staff exit interviews, you already have a foot in next summer.

For many, I think that’s the job. The fall is when next summer actually gets won, and somebody has to be looking at it while everyone else is still catching their breath.

But not everyone on the team is going to feel that same urgency right now.

That’s expected. K&E folks are doing different things at the moment. Some are helping out with the groups still on camp. Some are planning big trips. One got told, just work less.

They carried a whole summer. They earned the slow ramp.

Somebody flips the 2027 switch first, and it’s probably you. Sometimes part of the job is making sure nobody else has to yet.

So yeah. Summer 2027 is almost here. It was already almost here in July.

Both things get to be true.

Thinking about next summer is how we, as camps, win, and the brain doing the thinking just carried a whole summer.

Call the trainer. Maybe not at 4 AM.

Are we pro athletes? No. But find me another job that goes this hard for an extended burst and then, one day, is just over. Maybe those dudes on Deadliest Catch who go fishing for king crab.

Us, pro athletes, and deep sea fishermen. All thinking about next season.

What a world.

You got this,

Jack

PS - If you are in camp messaging, camp marketing, camp thinking mode right now (like me), just a reminder about Write From Camp on Substack.

That’s where Doug and I are writing 3x a week about things we’re working on, trying, and delivering at K&E.

For example, this week we wrote about post-camp surveys and how the one we sent had a few different purposes.

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