"My first instinct of camp this year was "This camp is only for a show; singing, acting, dancing with nothing else." Within the first two days my assumption was correct, however I didn't want it to be. I had been praying and praying for the past year, and two days to somehow get closer to God, but I never felt like I was connecting with him. It felt like a phone call gone straight to voice mail every time. Wednesday night: purity talk. Since this was my second year at Spotlight camp I knew that this night was extremely emotional for not only the campers, but even the counselors. The night kicked off with one of the counselors speaking. Before he began, I told myself that I wasn't going to cry because, I wasn't with God in my heart. Within 30 seconds of him speaking, I could taste the salt from my tears and I could feel the water on my face. I now understood why my calls always got rejected: I showed up as a whole different person. Think of it like this, when somebody calls you and the number shows up as 'Unknown' or 'Unidentified Contact'. God knew that I wasn't being myself and who I really was because I wanted to "impress" and "be cool" to the people I knew outside of camp. Yet, God didn't ditch me. God had always been there to pick me up when I fell. Whether I could hear him or not he would say to me "Here, let me help you" or "Do you want to stay here a while? That's ok, I will still help you up." My emotions got the best of me, now knowing how foolish I was. But the main message wasn't that you can make bad decisions all the time and that it is totally ok, the message was "You always have a ticket home." In my point of view, God is my home. I now have a ticket that I keep in my wallet that is with me at all times that says Destination: Home, Fee: $0.00. It is a reminder to me that even when you have burried yourself in the biggest hole possible, God is there to get you home for absolutely no fee. After the purity talk, Thursday night came by and we had a guest speaker. The year before I had remembered having a guest but I never got connected to the message. This nights theme was Commiting to God. I hadn't done this before and this was my chance. I knew within this short amount of time I was changing my entire life, literally. I chose the path to God. Within seconds all of the devotions clicked together, every speech made by the counselors had made absolute sense. Every single one, had connected to me all along. Another thing that I learned that night was love. The entire night consisted of me hugging people I had never spoken to, I didn't even know their names. People had even been praying for me! Not knowing a clue who I was. Counselors poured their hearts out to everyone. In that moment we were all being loved by God, and each other. But there is one thing that I will never forget. The guest speaker had been speaking about how he had no idea what his talents were, until one day he was sitting in the same camp that we were when he was young, and God had spoken through one of the counselors to him. The counselor had looked him straight in the eyes and told him his abilities and he never forgot it. The next day, I had just finished cleaning up the chapel for the showcase on the last day. One of the counselors called my name to walk with them. I had thought the least of it thinking they were asking me to hold a door open or something of the sort. They put the bucket down that they were holding, looked me in the eyes and said "What do you want to do?" I thought to myself "What does he mean? Do right now? Do in school? What?" I just looked back with a confused expression. He responded with another question saying "Do you want to pursue something in dance or musical theater?" I said "I love both, but I really want to do something with dance." Rather than just an "Ok" for a reply he said "Good. Because when you dance you have honesty to your moves. Instead of just performing and thinking 'Look I'm dancing, and look how good I am', you show the true emotions through the movements for everyone." I knew everyone included God. Never again will I forget those words. I have been told that I am a talented dancer by people who think none the less of it, but I could tell that when he just told me that, the meaning was 100% true. While performing I thought of those words and performed for God. I sang for God. I smiled for God. Spotlight taught me many lessons. Lessons that I will remember for the rest of my life. Lessons that I will remember through high school, adult hood, college, and my final days. My first assumption had proved me wrong. I walked into camp thinking one thing, and walked out of the chapel on the last day with a completely different mind set. The main point I got across at Spotlight can be put into 7 simple words: I love God, and God loves me."